


k »” *"/■ "> ' '> s' 

r K? ^ * A ' \ 


<» 

<* 

> l ’V ’ N v > * 

. ^ V w r ... ^ . 
-V - * * V" - « .V * * ">V • • * V* 

'■* ^ ^ jPcVZd*. * 




^ V* 


*" ^ ^ „ '''' 
"> *"'* 


:—< ° \X^‘ ^ ^ v//\^AV «* C ^ 

* ^ o av - 


V* // 

\° N c 4 - ^ **' ' a\ «, 

* ^ ■% J? *' 

\ ++ / , 

*y ' 

S n v^*<0° c o % o* 

0 ^ S S * * 5 N 0 • 

*** O * <* - * 



%c, C 




% 

**■ «£ 
C° k 

'"- ■* : € 
V*.TT->* .**• v ►; 

V* * * * 0 ,. "> 


* a , -i * ' \U~ 'O' 

* OF r , ^ 

A > ' ' * %> v * * * ° / 

* <■ * , * ■ ** • 



y V 

o 0 



^ -V s'. A. O * - - * 



V N * < * 0 a > , 0 V * s * ' * V * < * ° * 

A, ^ ^ aV «7 

^ ^ $$MJJh ° v ° i </» <y 

o aV <a. o %-/W'M “ «A> ^ Z 

- ^ *+ -aIIa* " % 

* -•*- 4V'. < \' , “‘/.- , ‘.,V 

ee/ff/yh ., 7 -p ° ^ ■." sS55^Mfc^y ”^*- 

^ v 1 w r 




x° ^ 


v S' V\\\Vv^ > \v ^U <y <Zc/J]y&P > - 

' 0 O *> <* O' & l* ^<A / ^ 

AT O, ^smO 0 <*> » n i‘ *0 

Q> s s**^ ^ N y , a. Y * 0 /- > A>* 

v * js&y^ + <*» „ r ^ s, * ,-v a^' *. jKMto* 



JV ° 

^ y 0 • * * aG 

** °o C P V ^° 


> = ^ 




v x 

ft 0 /■ 

^ «c? 

c-. v 




lV ♦ - - - ■ - ' - o 

* v % i yw, : / % 

*>> * * s :>v ^ ,v ° • x v 6 .* ^ < 


t> * 



-f O 

- ^ o' : 

: ,a v. »- ^ 

- * « >*% * 5 * 0 V\ * •»'/•> ' ' ■ '■ <r^i 

<;. _*\f\ , %»J , A, r ' <i>. ,A * 

A> .A v 




P“. * 





o 

A^ y '^. 

%*' o . ! ^ ^* v 0 n c <^"^7"" \\ A v 1 1 ^ %/ ° * v " 
o- (-O’ < " ^ °o 

U * -c^Xv . ^ ~V. 

/ 


O 0 


V 


V 


V ^ * WiT* r> r* 

^ ^ s a 0 - 'O 

'> 91 ' 



W 




o 5 ^ 

> >A * 

4 > NO’* s #' , .„ 

>v C‘. V ^ Y 0 ' 





































































































« 











































UNDER the ALLIED 

FLAGS 


A BOY’S ADVENTURES in the INTER- 
NATIONAL WAR AGAINST THE 
BOXERS AND CHINA ¥ 

By ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS 


AUTHOR OF “ IN DEFENCE OF THE 
FLAG,” “WITH LAWTON AND 
ROBERTS,” THE ft STORY OF OUR WAR 
WITH SPAIN,” “ IN BLUE AND WHITE,” 
ETC., ETC. 


' Illustrated by 

j W. F. STECHER 

? • ■ ■; •’ ,\\ 




BOSTON 

¥ 

LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Received 

APR. 29 1901 

Copyright entry 

a 4 a ,. iq, 

CLASS&/ XXc. N*. 

ys'os 

COPY B. 


Copyright, 1901, 

h 

Lothrop Publishing 
Company. 


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 


A 


y 


c c 
c 
( 


c c etc 


c f c C . 


< « c 


PREFACE 


I N pursuance of a desire to present to young peo- 
ple a series of adventures against a back- 
ground of recent historical happenings the 
author of this book follows his “ In Defence of the 
Flag ” and “ With Lawton and Roberts ” with a 
tale of the war in China, thus making a series of 
adventure stories that deal in due succession with the 
war with Spain, the revolt in the Philippines, the 
conflict in the Transvaal, and the siege and relief of 
the legations at Pekin. 

As in the preceding stories, “ Under the Allied 
Flags ” does not seek to go into the discussion of 
world problems and international rights ; the author 
has endeavored simply to tell a story of danger and 
adventure, introducing to the readers of the com- 
panion stories, some familiar friends, and showing 
how pluck and heedlessness, valor and carelessness 
may lead a healthy and well-meaning American lad 
into scrapes and experiences that only a boy could 
blunder into and out of. At the same time he has 
tried to sketch types of the various nationalities who, 
7 


8 


PREFACE 


ranged under or against the allied flags, waged this 
war for the safety of diplomatic and other represent- 
atives in a hostile land, and helped to make the story 
of the war in China at once interesting, dramatic 
and inspiring. 

If the story of Ned Pevear and his adventures 
“ Under the Allied Flags ” shall have taken to itself 
any of these qualities, the author will feel amply re- 
paid for his endeavor to tell a tale of action founded 
upon facts. 

For the facts drawn upon the author desires to ac- 
cord credit to the excellent sketches of the conflict 
that have appeared in print, and especially to the 
graphic accounts of the American correspondents, 
Frederick Palmer and Oscar King Davis. 

ELBRIDGE S. BROOKS. 
Boston, April , 1901. 


CONTENTS 


<jSB) 


(& 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Why Ned Joined the Marines i 

II. Out of the Frying Pan Into the Fire 28 

III. The Relief of the Relief 46 

IV. Ned’s Prisoner 63 

V. A Garrison of Two 80 

VI. A Rash Resolve 96 

VII. A Civil Official of the Third Degree 113 

VIII. Over Wall and Moat . 130 

IX. In Defeat and Victory 147 

X. Out of the Viceroy’s Treasure House 165 

XI. “ When I say ‘ Go ! ’ Go, Every One of You ”. . 181 

XII. What Happened at the Bridge 198 

XIII. In the Palace of Prince Tuan 218 

XIV. The Scheming of Captain Ullman 236 

XV. What Happened on the Junk 252 

XVI. The Courier of Prince Tuan 269 

XVII. “On to Pekin” 285 

XVIII. Within the Gates 303 


9 












































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Under the Allied Flags 


CHAPTER I 

WHY NED JOINED THE MARINES 

“ They're signalling us, sir/' the quartermaster 
reported. 

“ Looks like it/* the captain of the Orlando re- 
plied. “ Now, what under the sun — here ! quarter- 
master, let’s have the code book — or, hold on ! two — * 
eight — I can spell it out, I reckon. H-e-a-v-e t-o. 
S-p-e-c-i-a-l O-r-d-e-r-s. Special orders, eh? All 
right; heave to, it is. What in the nation is up now, 
I wonder ? ” 

The captain of the United States transport Or- 
lando , two days out from Hong Kong and a week 
from Manila had not long to wait. The engines were 
slowed down and the transport held herself drifting 
on the Yellow Sea, while a cutter from the detaining 
despatch boat swiftly cut across the intervening 
water. In the stern sheets sat a white bloused officer 


ii 


12 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


and his hail speedily rang out as he approached the 
transport. 

“ Ship ahoy ! ” he called. “ Is that the Orlando 
transport? ” 

“ Ay-ay-sir, homeward bound/’ the mate replied. 

Five minutes later, the lieutenant from the U. S. 
despatch boat Mont auk stood on the deck of the 
Orlando. 

“ You have Captain Marshall with a detachment 
of marines on board, homeward bound ? ” he in- 
quired. 

“ Yes, sir,” the officer of the deck replied. 

“ My compliments to the captain,” said the lieu- 
tenant; “ beg him to see me at once. I have orders 
for him from the admiral.” 

The messenger despatched with the summons had 
not far to go to find the captain of marines. In fact, 
that officer was already on deck, aroused by the slow- 
ing down of the Orlando's engines and the hail 
across the water. Red tape, however, must be un- 
wound and the message was duly delivered. 

The captain of marines saluted the lieutenant, and 
the latter turned over his order. 

“ A draft of three hundred marines, eh,” he said 
as he hastily scanned the order; “ to go to Taku at 
once? Hm! I’m not surprised. I thought some- 
thing was up or would be soon, from what I heard at 
Hong Kong.” 


WHY NED JOINED THE MARINES 13 

“ Yes, captain,” the lieutenant of the Montauk 
replied; “something is up with a vengeance. The 
Boxers are up; the Chinese are up, and we’ve got to 
protect our interests and our legations. The scala- 
wags are tearing up railroads, burning down sta- 
tions, attacking engineers and missionaries and no 
one knows what they may do to our people in Pekin. 
We’ve got to get more men into Taku harbor and up 
to Tien Tsin and Pekin, and we’ve got to do it quick. 
So the admiral is raking in all the marines and blue 
jackets he can spare from the fleet, and all the home- 
ward-bounds he can recall. What number do you 
report, captain ? ” 

The captain of marines was considering. 

“ Sick, invalided, expired term, leave of absence, 
transferred,” he went over his list — “ Well, most of 
’em come under those heads, lieutenant,” he said. 
“ I can give you about thirty on orders, lieutenant, 
and we may pipe out a few volunteers.” 

“ Count me as one, captain, You’ll let me go, 
won’t you ? ” 

The speaker was a sturdily built, clean cut lad, not 
yet out of his ’teens, whose face showed exposure to 
an Oriental sun and whose eyes lighted up with the 
love of action as the captain went over his list of 
availables. 

“ Count you as one, Ned ! ” the captain replied 
with a laugh; “why, you’re no marine, nor yet in 


14 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


the service, even if you did have experiences. Be- 
sides, what will your father say? ” 

“ He’ll say I’m a chip of the old block, captain,” 
the lad replied. “ Why, he did the same thing when 
he was a boy, and he’s always said to me ‘ never be 
afraid of anything except dishonor or run away 
from any duty that is a duty.’ Now this is a duty, 
captain, — to relieve our folks at Pekin; and — you 
called for volunteers. I don’t see but that lets me in, 
all right.” 

Captain Marshall smiled again. 

“The service first,” he said; “then — I’ll think 
about you, Ned. I’d like mighty well to have you 
go back with me, if it’s all right for you to do so. 
We’re going to need all the availables we can get 
just now.” 

So certain was the captain of this need that he 
went over his list of returning marines again and 
again; but out of his force of one hundred and 
twenty he could really only count upon thirty-five or 
forty as available for active service. A long season 
in the Philippines had influenced or affected the most 
of those listed for a return to the states, and even 
for the excitement of possible service in China the 
homeward bound men preferred “ God’s country ” 
of America to the fascinating mysteries of the Flow- 
ery Kingdom and the Forbidden City. 

“Thirty-five, eh? Well, that’s better than noth- 


WHY NED JOINED THE MARINES 15 

ing,” the lieutenant from the despatch boat said 
when Captain Marshall had completed his detail. 
“ Tumble their kits overboard and get 'em off to 
the Montauk as soon as you can, captain. We’ve 
no time to lose.” 

It was quick work; in a half hour the men and 
their belongings were transferred to the Montauk , 
and, instead of the long voyage homeward-bound 
across the Pacific, they were soon — some of them 
grumbling and some of them jubilant — steaming 
westward across the Yellow Sea to Taku and the 
treaty port of Tien Tsin. And Ned Pevear went 
with them. 

Now Ned Pevear may be no stranger to certain 
of my readers who, perhaps, followed his adventures 
and experiences as, under three flags and two heroes, 
he saw service in the Philippines and the Transvaal, 
with Lawton and Roberts. If Ned really is an old 
acquaintance you will understand how, in the haste 
and hustle of transfer from the Orlando to the Mon- 
tauk, Captain Marshall of the marines might be in- 
duced to accede to the lad’s request and permit Ned 
Pevear to accompany him as volunteer; for Ned 
Pevear had a way of bringing people to see things 
as he saw them, and he was always a delightful and 
desirable companion. 

Ned had seen service in two wars under two no- 
table leaders; his experiences fitted him to engage in 


1 6 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

similar enterprises where coolness in decision, steadi- 
ness in action and an utter absence of fear were im- 
portant considerations; his father was an old soldier, 
who had transmitted alike his courage and his 
soldierly qualities to his son; the business, upon 
which he had been despatched to the Philippines by 
his father, had been completed, and he was now on 
his homeward way, free to consider fresh enterprises 
if he so desired. 

To be sure he had been compelled to leave Tol- 
lman’ s — his school in California, as you may remem- 
ber, to which he had returned after his home-coming 
from South Africa. But that had been his father’s 
doing and not his. Major Pevear of the Bighorn 
ranches in Montana had need of one who knew the 
Philippines to look after a beef contract at Manila; 
Ned, from experience and acquaintance in that new 
possession of the republic had, naturally, been his 
first thought when the problem presented itself, and 
to Manila Ned had gone; there he had completed his 
business satisfactorily and was now returning home 
on the transport Orlando — the very same steamer in 
which, as the readers of “ With Lawton and Rob- 
erts ” may remember, he had his first unpleasant ex- 
perience as “ a gentleman stowaway.” 

But things were vastly different from that day of 
deliverance. Captain Thompson of the Orlando, 
gruff and grumpy though he could be, “ thought a 


WHY NED JOINED THE MARINES 19 

days later, three hundred foreign troops were sent 
forward to guard the legations at Pekin, fifty of 
whom were from the American fleet. 

But escorts despatched for the safety of the lega- 
tions at Pekin were but as oil poured upon the rising 
flame of riot and massacre. Maddened by the false 
reports of their leaders the fighting element of the 
Boxers rose against the foreigners in mission “ com- 
pound ” and engineer camp and destroyed property, 
terrorized foreigners and natives, and vented on 
those they captured the relentless persecutions and 
nameless tortures of a people without sympathy, 
sentiment or the fear of pain. 

Day by day the danger to the foreigners in Pekin 
increased, and when Ned Pevear sailed over the 
Taku bar the allied naval commanders had decided 
to march a force of marines from the international 
fleet to the relief of the beleaguered legations within 
the walls of Pekin. 

The draft had already been made from the fleet; 
it included a hundred marines from the American 
ships under the command of Captain McCalla of the 
Newark , and the strength of the mixed command 
barely exceeded two thousand men, with the senior 
foreign captain, Vice Admiral Edward Hobart Sey- 
mour of the British Navy, as chief in command. 

A relief column! That promised adventure, ex- 
citement, service in the cause of humanity — every- 


20 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


thing that appealed to the adventurous and chivalric 
soul of so earnest a youth as Ned Pevear. 

“ Captain/' he said to Marshall of the marines, 
“ I want to join Admiral Seymour’s expedition. 
Can’t you fix it for me? ” 

“ I don’t see why you shouldn’t want to, Ned,” the 
captain replied, with enthusiasm. “ I wish I had 
been detailed for that service, too. I’ll see Captain 
McCalla and try to get a chance for you as volunteer 
aid, writer or something. I don’t suppose you know 
Chinese, eh ? If you did, I could arrange for you at 
once as an interpreter.” 

Ned knew much for a lad of his years; but he 
really felt obliged to acknowledge that he was not 
“ fluent ” in the Chinese lingo. 

“ I did get hold of pidgin English, Captain,” he 
said, “both in California and the Philippines; but 
I’m afraid that wouldn’t help much hereabouts.” 

“ I’m afraid not, Ned,” said the captain. “ Pidgin 
English in California and the Chinese lingo of North 
China haven’t much in common. I’ll try another 
tack with Captain McCalla.” 

Whatever the tack was that Captain Marshall 
tried, it worked. Within an hour he saw the com- 
mander of the Newark and reported to Ned that 
Captain McCalla would be glad to have him accom- 
pany the expedition as special messenger or volun- 
teer orderly in the marine contingent. 


WHY NED JOINED THE MARINES 21 


“ And that means about anything the captain takes 
it into his head to detail you for, from writing dis- 
patches to swinging a cutlass,” Marshall explained. 
“ It seems Captain McCalla heard of you and your 
Philippine experiences from someone or other and he 
says you’re too good an all-round chap to lose. You 
are to report to him on the Newark to-morrow.” 

Ned was overjoyed. He was a lad of pluck and 
spirit, and, to such as he, the pluck and spirit of Cap- 
tain McCalla of the Newark were peculiarly attract- 
ive. 

He had heard the story of how the determined 
McCalla dominated the foreign council that debated 
the question of an advance for relief. It was a story 
well fitted to stir the American blood. 

“ Gentlemen,” said Captain McCalla, as British, 
Japanese and Germans, Americans, French and Rus- 
sians debated the question of advance and relief, “ we 
have talked a good deal ; now I will tell you what I 
will do. Our minister telegraphs that he is in dan- 
ger. It matters not what others may or may not do. 
My entire force of one hundred blue jackets will take 
a train and start for Pekin to-morrow morning.” 

And start they did, the allies following the brave 
American’s lead. And so, too, it came about that 
Ned Pevear joined the marines at Taku, and re- 
ported for duty as auxiliary aid to Captain McCalla 
of Admiral Seymour’s advance. 


22 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


The peculiar and manifold experiences of a young 
fellow like Ned Pevear became part of the gossip of 
camp and mess and when Sir Edward Seymour, the 
senior admiral of the allied fleets, learned that, in 
the American detail there was one who had seen 
scouting service as well in the Transvaal as in the 
Philippines, and who was acquainted with the con- 
versational demands of three languages, besides pid- 
gin English and Tagalog, he begged from Captain 
McCalla a loan of the young man for special service 
in the advance and Ned Pevear was despatched from 
Tien Tsin to accompany the advance and report upon 
the condition of the railway from Tien Tsin to 
Pekin. 

Up the muddy-brown Pei-Ho, from where, swing- 
ing at their berths, the forty warships of the allied 
nations threatened the adobe forts of Taku, to 
muddy-brown Tien Tsin, the commercial capital of 
North China walled about with mud and the home of 
a million Mongolians and a well-kept foreign con- 
cession, Ned Pevear made his way in obedience to 
commands; and was soon steaming away from the 
port of Pekin to Pekin itself as the crudely armored 
train pulled out from the barn-like station beyond 
the pontoon bridge to feel the way for Seymour’s 
advance. 

Ned had experienced the ways and perils of 
armored trains both in the Philippines and in the 


WHY NED JOINED THE MARINES 23 


country of the Boers, but he, equally with his com- 
rades of the advance, had little faith in the fighting 
abilities of the Chinese. 

“ Mighty slim chance for more’n a brush with 
em, I reckon,” he said to an old sergeant of British 
marines who sat beside him in the armored car. 
x “ They tell me most of these Chinamen don’t know a 
Mauser from a bolo and that they fight with spears 
and drum banging, and all that old fogy stuff. Ac- 
cording to that we good British or Yankee blue 
jackets ought to be a match for anything from a 
hundred to a thousand Chinks, eh ? ” 

The grizzled old sergeant looked at the lad beside 
him with poorly-concealed contempt. 

“ Now who’s been a-stuffin’ of ye like that, lad? ” 
he said. “ See here, I’ve seen these yellow chaps in 
more’n one scrap. I was with the allies forty years 
ago when they did this very job we’re at to-day. I 
was powder monkey on the Kestral when Admiral 
Seymour — it was a Seymour then, too, you see — 
stormed the Taku forts and we and the Frenchies 
got more than we bargained for ; I was on deck when 
Pekin fell at last, and I got good stuff when we 
looted the Summer palace; I got a peep at these fel- 
lows when Japan laid them out in the Yulu fight, and 
I’ve sized ’em up since we’ve been patrolling the 
treaty ports ; and let me tell you these chappies aren’t 
the same stuff the allies faced in ’59 nor the Japs in 


24 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


’97. The German drill-masters have made soldiers 
of them and their best fighters — the Bannermen — 
are just as well up in handling Mausers and machine 
guns as any armorer on our fleet.” 

“ Yes, but those are the soldiers — a few of them,” 
Ned replied. “ We’re not up against them yet; we’re 
after the Boxers — and what do they know about 
fighting? ” 

“ You’ll find out, young chap,” the old sergeant 
said. “ You mark my word, the soldiers are stand- 
ing in with the Boxers in this affair. They’ll talk 
one way and shoot another. And as for these Box- 
ers not being fighters — why, see here! lad — eh? 
what’s that? Torn up the track have they? Here’s 
trouble for us, then. No fighters, my Yankee boy? 
You just watch and see.” 

But Ned had not much time to watch. He was to 
learn by actual experience. For when the first di- 
vision of the armored train bearing English and 
American marines had run some fifteen miles from 
Tien Tsin the railway track was found to have been 
torn up by the natives and the track menders were 
set to work under the protection of American and 
English rifles. 

In the brush that flanked the track a skirmish 
line taken from the forces on the train was at once 
concealed. 

“ Jump in that hand car with me and see what we 


WHY NED JOINED THE MARINES 25 

can see ahead,” the sergeant said to Ned, and the 
two, with a half dozen marines £nd laborers, ran to 
the limit of the relaid track, two hundred yards or 
so in advance of the train. 

“ They tell me you’re great at a scout, young ’un,” 
the sergeant said. “Just use your eyes and see if 
the land’s clear, so that we can let in a gang of track 
men.” 

“ Seems to be all clear, sergeant,” Ned replied, let- 
ting his sharp eyes range far ahead of the hand ear. 
“ Clear all around,” he continued, letting his glance 
linger an instant to the right and the left. “ You 
know these Chin-Chins better than I do though, ser- 
geant; but, all the same, don’t you think it would be 
a good plan to beat the brush a bit off to the right 
and go back a piece before we let the track men — 
hullo! see there! Cut off, by George! There’s a 
crowd of ’em breaking the brush. We’re sur- 
rounded, sergeant.” 

The sergeant leaped from the hand car, his Mau- 
ser in his hand ; he ordered three marines on the car 
to his side. Ned stood on the car, his rifle ready 
also. 

“ Not surrounded,” said the sergeant. “ Cut off; 
that’s what we are. See, yonder! they’re trotting 
down the track. They’re going to wreck the train 
and leave us for the last.” 

“ Attack an armored train with rifles, swords and 


26 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


spears? ” exclaimed Ned; “ what do they think they 
are — iron clad? ” 

“ They don’t know the train is, lad,” cried the ser- 
geant with a chuckle. “Just keep your eye on that 
skirmish line. John Chinaman’s going to have a 
surprise.” 

The sergeant was correct. Down the track in 
single file trotted the Chinamen, three hundred 
strong. Ahead of them lay the train, an easy prey, 
as they believed, for they evidently supposed the men 
on the hand car to be all there were of the train 
hands and guard. 

Nearer and nearer the skirmish line they ran; then, 
when within less than twenty paces of the masking 
growth of brush a sharp order was heard and a vol- 
ley that sounded like a single shot rang out from the 
brush. 

With a yell of surprise the advancing file of Box- 
ers stopped short, the rear bunched in with the ad- 
vance and, beneath that deadly volley of the skir- 
mishers, the whole quivering mass of men seemed to 
fall in their tracks. 

They were up again; others joined them from the 
rear; another volley caught them for an instant; then 
the ambushers — English and American both — 
sprang from the bush with a rousing yell, and the 
over-confident Boxers turned and raced up the track 
for dear life, the skirmishers at their heels. 




<> 



Tumbling Ned into the hands of the Boxers. 




























*? 





WHY NED JOINED THE MARINES 27 

The sergeant and Ned Pevear with the half dozen 
riflemen of the guard stood at bay before the retreat- 
ing mass, and as they came upon them a half-dozen 
Mausers rang out the little squad’s defiance. Caught 
thus as they thought between two fires, the China- 
men broke in every direction, but a line of spearmen 
led by an officer with sword and gun dashed straight 
ahead at the hand car and before Ned could spring 
from his stand upon the car, the officer with fifty 
men at his back had broken through the defence of 
the guard and rushing at the hand car sent it spin- 
ning up the track and off the broken end, tumbling 
Ned Pevear straight into the hands of the retreating 
Boxers. 


CHAPTER II 


OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE 

The thing all happened so quickly that Ned was 
down almost before he realized his danger. But he 
was on his feet as swiftly and clubbing his rifle laid 
about him to left and right, scarce giving his assail- 
ants time to fight or flee. 

As it was the leader of the Boxers who had headed 
the rush on the hand car it was at him that Ned 
aimed the chief attack. He was a stout Chinaman, 
whose face seemed to belie his Chinese origin and 
when one of Ned’s swinging blows took him with a 
thud in his stomach the officer was completely 
doubled up with the blow, and an expression, — cer- 
tainly not Chinese, Mongol, nor Manchurian — es- 
caped him. 

“ Ach, himmel!” he cried, as he recovered him- 
self and lunged a furious blow at the boy with the 
clubbed Mauser. 

But Ned had been in tight places before and knew 
how to defend himself at bay. 

He did this so effectively, that he actually held 
back the brief assault by sword and spear made upon 
28 


FROM FRYING PAN INTO FIRE 


29 


him — brief because, with a ringing shout, the ad- 
vance from the skirmish line came charging up the 
wrecked railroad track and a volley from the skir- 
mishers sent the throng to the right about the hand 
car scattering in demoralized flight. 

Strengthened by this rescue Ned sought^ {o gain 
some glory from the affair and singling out the 
leader of the now flying Boxers, he fairly leaped 
upon him, clutched him about the neck, and with a 
well-remembered lock and twist flung him to the 
ground. There he simply sat upon him. 

“ Surrender ! ” he cried, “ or I’ll — ” Then he re- 
membered that his foeman could scarcely compre- 
hend his English demand and he actually laughed 
aloud at his first fight on Chinese soil. He was 
floored by conversational difficulties. 

With the laugh of the captor the countenance of 
the captive changed also and an ingratiating sort of 
smile accompanied the query “ You will let me free, 
young Englander, yes? It was but in sport, this.” 

“ What! you speak English? ” cried Ned. “ Sur- 
render then, or I’ll kill you.” 

“ Again the sport,” the prostrate one remarked; 
“ You could not — would not kill me.” 

It did seem almost like murder to give the death 
stroke to “ the under dog,” even on the field of bat- 
tle, and Ned, who struck only in the excitement of 
the charge or in self defence, confessed as much. 


3 ° 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Hanged if I can ! ” he replied with a laugh. “ Get 
up and clear out before the marines are on you. 
They don’t give quarter to you bloody Boxers. But, 
say ! ” he cried out, as with a scramble and a sweep- 
ing bow the man he had set free was up and off, 
“ what are you doing among these murderers, you’re 
not a Boxer, are you, — or a Chinaman ? ” - 

The officer was already scurrying toward his men 
who, heavily reinforced, were massing two hundred 
yards ahead. 

“Auf wiedersehen! ” came back the answer, and 
the released one joined the enemy. 

“ Auf wiedersehen f ” echoed Ned. “ Why, that’s 
Dutch, isn’t it — or German? It can’t be possible 
there are any Europeans or white men leading that 
bloodthirsty crew. Auf wiedersehen? That means 
till we meet again or something of that sort. Well ! 
if we do meet again I’ll find out whether you’re 
Dutch, Irish, Yankee, South Sea Islander or just 
plain Chinaman. You’re something you ought not 
to be anyhow — and that’s a Boxer.” 

Of Ned’s companions on the hand car, two had 
been killed and two wounded in the Chinese onset, 
but the sergeant was in good condition and exces- 
sively angry. 

“ Rushed and tumbled over by a gang of laundry- 
men,” he cried. “ That’s a fine to-do, that is. Here, 
you chaps ! ” he shouted to the advance of the skir- 


FROM FRYING PAN INTO FIRE 31 

mish line, “ show some more ginger and hurry up, 
fcan’t ye. Drive ’em back before they mass again. 
Hollo! lad; you’re safe, are you? I thought they’d 
done for you, sure. What d’ye think about their 
fighting now ? ” 

“ They had spears as I said they had,” Ned 
answered, “ and they ran like sheep. That wasn’t 
fighting.” 

“ Don’t crow yet,” the sergeant retorted. “ Look 
at ’em yonder. They mean to make another stand. 
Run back to the train won’t you and tell ’em to rush 
it along. Our skirmish line is too small to stand 
against that rush.” 

Ned sped down the newly-laid track as the ser- 
geant requested, while the skirmishers rallied about 
the old sergeant as a temporary advance guard. 

“ In force, eh ? ” the major of marines in the first 
of the armored trains said, as Ned delivered his mes- 
sage. “ Is the track clear to the skrmish line? ” 

“ Very nearly, sir,” Ned responded. “ I can show 
the engineer the limit.” 

“ Jump into the cab then and play lookout,” said 
the major, as he bade the engineer pull slowly ahead. 
“ When we’re as far as we can go we’ll try a rapid- 
fire gun on ’em.” 

Slowly the armored train crept on along the half 
repaired track; already the Chinese mass was mov- 
ing on toward the thin but determined skirmish line; 


3 * 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


there came a shrill yell from the Boxer ranks and 
with a scattering volley they came with a rush upon 
the skirmish line. 

“ Swing open the port,” cried the major of ma- 
rines, unmindful of his mixing of terms in his ex- 
citement. “ Now then, train that rapid-fire gun on 
’em through the opening and when I bid ye, let the 
rascals have it” 

Five hundred Boxers, spearmen and swordsmen, 
charged upon the skirmish line, while, across the 
flat fields that skirted the railway track, at least five 
hundred more hurried to join the assault. 

There came a sharp volley from the skirmish line 
so timed in unison that again it rang out like one 
great shot; the advance of the Boxers wavered and 
shook for an instant; then the mass closed upon the 
skirmishers, while the shouts of the new forces 
swarming across the platted barley fields came in 
vengeful warning to the little band. 

Suddenly the port or closed side door of the armor- 
defended car swung open and the harmless looking 
nose of a rapid-fire gun protruded itself. 

“ Got the range, boys? Now! let her go,” came 
the command from the major. 

Snip, snip, pling, pling ! with bark and crack and 
snap in quick succession the terrible fusilade of the 
rapid-fire gun opened upon the startled and huddling 
mass of Boxers; the gun from the second car fol- 


FROM FRYING PAN INTO FIRE 


33 


lowed suit and, stricken with surprise and terror, the 
whole mass of attacking Boxers broke and fled 
across the barley fields, leaving the ground strewn 
with the dead and dying — three hundred and more, 
— victims to modern improvements in war. 

Ned Pevear was a good fighter, but he had a ten- 
der heart toward distress; the writhing mass of 
wounded heathen amid their dead brethren, the har- 
vest of death on the grain fields of Yang-tsun, 
aroused his pity. 

“ By George ! that’s rough,” he commented as he 
looked from the cab at the swath of death the rapid- 
fire gun had cut. “ They’re men even if they are 
heathen. Can’t we help ’em somehow ? ” 

He swung himself from the cab and put the same 
inquiry to the major of marines in the armored car. 

“ Help ’em ? Why, lad, don’t you know there is 
nothing more treacherous than a wounded China- 
man? ” the major replied. “ You hold your hands 
off if you wish to keep the breath in your body. 
There is no such thing as sentiment, honor or grati- 
tude for favors in the whole Chinese race. Isn’t 
that so, sergeant ? ” he added, as the old marine from 
the skirmish line, came up to report. 

“ Ay-ay, sir; true every time, ye are,” the sergeant 
replied. “ D’ye mind that scar, lad? ” and he tossed 
back the hair from his forehead; “ that’s what I got 
for trying to save a Chinkie’s life, back in the other 


34 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


war. They don’t know what decency toward an 
enemy is. Hands off, say I.” 

By this time the second armored train had pulled 
up behind the advance train and American and Brit- 
ish marines fraternized while awaiting orders; the 
scouting line was pushed forward; the track layers 
were put to work, and Ned far in advance of the 
scouts was, with the old sergeant and his picked 
marines, keeping a sharp lookout for another at- 
tack. 

Four miles to the rear of the armored trains, the 
rest of the expedition was closing slowly in; Rus- 
sians and French, Japanese and Italians, Germans 
and Austrians were in the second section of the ad- 
vance, the two trains first attacked being occupied by 
the thousand British and Americans who led the re- 
lief column. 

It was a tedious advance; for when the line of 
destroyed track was reached the expedition could 
scarcely cover more than five miles a day. It was by 
no means a picnic excursion for the allies, and when, 
three miles beyond Yang-tsun, Ned and his advance 
scouters found the bridge destroyed, it looked as if 
the way to Pekin were blocked indeed. 

This, too, was the opinion of a young Englishman 
whom Ned Pevear, having gone back to report ob- 
structions to the major to whose force he had been 
assigned, met sprinting up the railway track. 


FROM FRYING PAN INTO FIRE 35 

He was a sturdy, well-built young Englishman, a 
year or two Ned’s senior, and he was evidently in a 
state of mind. 

“ Bridge destroyed, eh?” he said. “ Hm! that’s 
a pretty howdy-do for a fellow who’s due in Pekin 
to-morrow.” 

“ In Pekin!” exclaimed Ned. “You didn’t ex- 
pect to get through to Pekin without any trouble, 
did you ? ” 

“ Expect ! expect’s got nothing to do with it, lad,” 
the young Englishman replied. “ I’ve got to; that’s 
all there is about it.” 

“ Whose command are you with — the admiral’s — - 
Seymour’s?” queried Ned, who could not reconcile 
the stranger’s civilian dress, with the very military 
air of the relief expedition. “ Newspaper man, per- 
haps ? ” 

“Newspaper? No,” the English lad replied. “Do 
I look like a fighting correspondent? No, I have an 
appointment under Sir Robert Hart, inspector of 
customs, and my salary began from the date of ap- 
pointment. I simply must get into Pekin and report, 
or all that salary is going to ruin. A clerk in the 
Chinese customs has no time to waste, bothering 
with an army as slow as this. I’m going to push 
on to Pekin; I can walk it faster than the relief 
train.” 

Ned laughed heartily. 


36 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

“Walk it?” he cried. “And how about our 
friends the Boxers ? ” 

“ Well,” the English lad replied, with a com- 
panion laugh, “ they’ll be like Stephenson’s cow on 
the railway track, don’t you know : ‘ it’ll be vera bad 
for the coo,’ Stephenson said.” 

“ What is this customs appointment anyhow ? ” 
Ned inquired. “ I don’t think I understand ex- 
actly.” 

“You’re an American, aren’t you? Yes? I 
thought so,” as Ned answered his query with a nod 
and the two exchanged cards — for all the world as if 
they were two young fellows who had met for the 
first time in their fathers’ club, in London or New 
York, instead of on the firing line in the land of the 
Boxers, China the mysterious and murderous. 

“ Edward Pevear, Bighorn ranches, Montana,” 
the English lad read. 

“ Thomas Dickson, Consulate of H. B. M. Valen- 
cia, Spain,” the American boy read. 

“ Good enough,” the Englishman said. “ I’m 
glad you’re an American. I know some jolly good 
American young folks. Don’t know Don Martin, I 
suppose ? ” 

Ned expressed his ignorance of the gentleman. 

“ You ought to,” Tom Dickson said. “ He’s a 
plucky young chap. He was the son of the Ameri- 
can consul in Valencia and he sneaked it across the 


FROM FRYING PAN INTO FIRE 37 


Atlantic in Cervera’s fleet and we were in no end 
of tight places — he and I. You ought to know 
him.” 

“ But what about the customs services here in 
China, Mr. Dickson?” Ned again inquired, not as 
much interested in Donald Martin as are, perhaps, 
some of my readers who may have followed the ad- 
ventures of Donald Martin and Tom Dickson in that 
veracious record of their doings : “ In Defence of the 
Flag.” 

“ Why, you see — Mr. Pevear — ” here Tom looked 
at the card — “ hang it ! — Ned, that’s what Fm going 
to call you; that was Don’s style; — the Chinese cus- 
toms service is in charge of a British inspector, Sir 
Robert Hart, a first button mandarin. Sir Robert 
was planning to put the management of Chinese 
customs into the hands of young American and Eng- 
lishmen of some education; he had made arrange- 
ments for their instruction by Chinese teachers and 
was gradually picking out his men. I had the honor 
to be picked — and my father shipped me over here 
to Pekin to report to Sir Robert Hart. That’s why 
I’ve got to get there, hit or miss, Boxer or no Boxer. 
I sneaked it into this armored train at Tien Tsin, 
managed to smuggle myself aboard, — and here I am. 
I’m bound for Pekin on foot or horseback, train, 
camel or griffin, and get there I will — because I 
must, don’t you know.” 


38 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

“ What’s a griffin? ” queried Ned, who could only 
think of the fabulous monster of antiquity. 

“ Griffin ? — why — Chinese pony — Mongol breed, 
don’t you know? You try one once and you’ll never 
forget ’em,” laughed Tom. 

“ I have,” Ned replied. “ I know the breed, if I 
didn’t know the name. But, see here, Tom ! ” fol- 
lowing his new friend’s lead, “ that’s all moon- 
shine about your hiking it through to Pekin. You’d 
be murdered before you get there.” 

“What! by these Chinkies?” said Tom. “ O, I 
fancy not. My hat ! I’ve been cramming on Chinese 
for a year and if I can’t bluff my way through, then 
I’m no Englishman. Besides, I have Sir Robert 
Hart’s permit and pass, and they’ll get me through. 
He’s a way-up mandarin, don’t you know.” 

“ Same as Ward, the American was, before Chi- 
nese Gordon’s day,” said Ned. “ Well, perhaps you 
can ; but these Boxers, so they say, have mighty little 
respect for the Imperial government. They’re 
China for the Chinese, you know, and they’re down 
on these Manchus, from the Empress Dowager to 
the Bannermen. I tell you, Tom, there’s going to 
be a merry Hail Columbia in this land of the Chin- 
Chins, and don’t you forget it. You’d better stick 
to the allied army and let us get you through. We 
ought to be in Pekin in a day or two.” 

So all the world thought too, but all the world 


FROM FRYING PAN INTO FIRE 


39 


had not reckoned on the temper of the Chinese nor 
the determination and strength of the Boxer upris- 
ing. The swarms of Chinamen seemed to come from 
every direction. With arms of all sorts in their 
hands, with hatred in their hearts and in their slant- 
ing, almond eyes, they harassed the allied advance, 
pressed about' it on all sides, cut off its communica- 
tion in the rear and so overwhelmed and cornered it 
that the advance ceased, the marines and jackies, 
brave and bold though they were, were actually sur- 
rounded and threatened by the horde of foreign- 
hating Boxers, until the relief expedition sorely 
needed relief itself, and for fully ten days was lost to 
the world, its fate in doubt, its ranks thinning from 
sickness and constant attack and its relief, quite as 
much as that of the ministers in Pekin, a necessity 
and a duty. 

“ Pevear,” the major of marines said, “ the ad- 
miral needs a courier to ride back to the fleet with 
tidings of our condition. It calls for instant action. 
Can you try it ? ” 

“ I will do it, sir,” replied Ned promptly. “ It is 
only going back the road we came, and I’m a good 
dodger.” 

“ You’ll need to try your dodging here, I fancy,” 
the major said. “ But if we are not reinforced we’re 
in a bad box. These Boxer chaps can’t stand before 
us in the open, but in a country seething with excite- 


40 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


ment and full of those who hate us, they can harass 
and cripple us by simply trying to crowd us off the 
earth by their numbers. So we must have help ana 
have it quickly. When can you leave ? ” 

“ As soon as you are ready, sir, I am,” Ned re- 
plied. 

“ Good ! ” cried the major. “ In half an hour, the 
train will be ready to take you back to Yang Tsun, 
where our connections end. Beyond that point the 
natives are in control. You’ll find ponies ready, and 
if you need assistance or comrades, the commander 
of that outpost will detail a special escort; though 
what good an escort will do you, lad, when the entire 
advance is checked, I’m blest if I can say.” 

“ I’m afraid an escort would only make trouble, 
major,” Ned declared. “ This is one of the cases 
where a fellow must go it alone. I’ll get through if 
I can, sir,” he added, “ but if I can’t — ” 

An expressive silence completed the unfinished 
sentence only too well. The major shook the boy’s 
hand. 

“ We’re in a bad strait, lad, there’s no denying 
that,” he said. “ I never supposed these maniacs 
meant business so thoroughly. I don’t believe Ad- 
miral Seymour did. But here we are — trapped. It 
wouldn’t look well for Yankees and Englishmen, to 
say nothing of the other nations, to let themselves be 
jugged by a lot of Paythans. But we’ve got to have 


FROM FRYING PAN INTO FIRE 41 

help; and you’re the chap to be depended on. Do 
the best you can for us — and, if you’re floored, — 
why, you’re floored, that’s all ! ” 

A half hour later Ned was on the armored train 
which was to push back to the endangered rear. As 
the train pulled away from the advanced camp Ned 
heard a cheery “ how d’ye do ” and a young fellow 
swung himself into the car. It was the English lad, 
Tom Dickson. 

“ I’ve got to try another tack, Ned,” he cried. 
“ These fellows won’t let me push on to Pekin ; they 
say we’re surrounded and that it’s death to try. Fact 
is, they ran me out of camp because I’m a civilian 
and they’re sending me back to Tien Tsin. But 
Pekin is my point and I’m going to make it, by hook 
or by crook.” 

Ned laughed. 

“ You’re a determined chap,” he said. “ But seems 
to me we’re in one of the places where you can 
neither go ahead nor fall back. It’s just about as 
easy to get to Pekin as it is to go back to Tien Tsin. 
That’s what I’m off for, — to hurry up the relief.” 

“ How? ” queried Tom. 

“ Blest if I know, yet,” Ned answered. “ But 
there are more ways than one to do a thing, and if 
I can’t work myself back in one way I will in another 
— that’s all there is about it.” 

“ That’s the talk ! My hat ! but you’re the man 


42 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


for me,” the English lad exclaimed. “ Don’t you 
want a mate ? Who knows but I may get to Pekin 
by going around the wrong way. Let me ride back 
to Tien Tsin with you, eh? We’ll cut our way 
through these Boxers, see if we don’t. And I talk 
Chinese, don’t you know.” 

Ned welcomed the comradeship of the English lad, 
though he could not yet believe that there was so 
much danger in his mission as the major of marines 
intimated. He had scouted in the Philippines; he 
had performed messenger service in the Transvaal; 
he had been in many a close corner and many a 
tight place; but he had always found his way out at 
last, and with the ready optimism of youth he as- 
sured himself that he would be able somehow to find 
his way out of this Chinese puzzle of breaking 
through the circling and encompassing maze of 
fanatical Chinamen. 

But the maze became even more encompassing as 
the train came to the end of its line. Beyond Lang 
Fang, on the north the tracks to Pekin had been torn 
up; behind Yang Tsun on the south the tracks to 
Tien Tsin had been destroyed; communications were 
cut with the base of supplies at Tien Tsin and the 
supporting fleet at Taku; and even had Admiral Sey- 
mour determined that the only way to get to Pekin 
was to force his men on and on through the living 
Chinese wall he would find that way blocked beyond 


FROM FRYING PAN INTO FIRE 43 


the possibility of cutting through; for life in China 
is cheap and the gap opened in that living wall be- 
fore the allies would be closed again and again until 
the baffled advance had spent itself in attacks that 
led to nothing but killing off or wearing out. 

So when the train reached Yang Tsun and Ned 
reported at headquarters and demanded the pony 
for his ride to the South, he found that Admiral Sey- 
mour had decided not to send for relief but to with- 
draw his whole force back to Tien Tsin. 

“ Further advance by rail is impossible,” he said, 
when Ned reported his readiness to break through 
for relief, “ we are short of provisions, hampered 
with our wounded, cut off from communication with 
our base and absolutely out of supplies. We must 
move as a whole, living on the country and dropping 
back until we can get to some point where if a 
relieving force does not reach us it will be really a re- 
lief and not an additional incumbrance. So, sir, I 
thank you for your readiness, but shall beg you to 
defer your ride for relief until we are in better situ- 
ation for it.” 

Both Ned and Tom would have grumbled at this 
decision had they not seen its force. In a successful 
retreat, for retreat it was, safety depends upon keep- 
ing together or retreat degenerates into rout. 

Even success in retreat seemed often in question. 
From village to village and station to station the 


44 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Boxers swarmed about the little force of allies seek- 
ing to cut off their retreat and decimate their ranks. 
Defeated in one village, the Boxers would retire to 
the next and selecting the best positions for attack, 
skillfully retard the retreat that was really an ad- 
vance, for though hampered by his wounded and 
baggage, Seymour still drew nearer to Tien Tsin, 
clearing the forces that threatened him, now by well 
directed musketry battles or now at the point of the 
bayonet. 

So, step by step, the retreat that was an advance 
kept on and after four days of continuous fighting, 
with a loss of sixty killed and three hundred 
wounded, he arrived after a night march in sight of 
the imperial arsenal above Tien Tsin. 

Here the gallant band made a stand, and here 
fresh armies of Boxers blocked their way into the 
city. But as the allies occupied the river bank op- 
posite the arsenal the white flag fluttered out and un- 
armed Chinamen made friendly signals and ad- 
vances. 

A boat pulled across the river to parley with the 
enemy, and Ned, as courier, was in the boat, so that, 
if the Chinamen were really friendly, he might gallop 
through to the city and arrange for relief. The boats 
with the wounded stopped in midstream while below, 
on one bank of the Pei-ho, the allied forces com- 
manded the Chinese positions on the further side. 


FROM FRYING PAN INTO FIRE 45 


Little by little the boat pushed its way; the friendly 
signals were redoubled and a throng of Chinamen, 
without arms, crowded to the water’s edge. 

Suddenly, through the welcoming advance, with 
shouts and cries, burst an armed throng; the un- 
armed welcomers were armed at once, and from bank 
and field and arsenal wall came a burst of fire and 
shell, and the boat bearing the parleying allies sank, 
riddled with shot, overset by the heavy and treach- 
erous assault of the truce-breaking Chinamen. 


CHAPTER III 


THE RELIEF OF THE RELIEF 

Ned Pevear clutched desperately at the sinking 
boat as he went down, but it was forced away from 
him. Ned, however, as you perhaps remember, was 
a sturdy swimmer and not only kept afloat but, sink- 
ing below the surface, tried some of his best under- 
water swimming. Above him the shots flew and 
whistled as the outraged allies replied to the treach- 
ery of the crafty Chinese. 

Hot and heavy came the rifle fire in front; over the 
river above the armory Major Johnson and his 
marines and seamen dashed, in a resistless charge, 
while, below, the Germans silenced two of the Box- 
ers’ guns before the arsenal wall and, crossing, cap- 
tured the guns, drove off the defenders of the wall 
and joining the main body of the allies, massed for 
a combined attack, stormed the gates of the arsenal, 
drove off its defenders and forcing an entrance, held 
the captured armory and its great stores of ammuni- 
tion and supplies. 

But they could not relieve Ned Pevear. For even 
as the lad, dodging the storm of hail that flew across 
46 


THE RELIEF OF THE RELIEF 


47 


the river, swam down to where a native river 
boat offered a temporary asylum, he found himself 
swiftly drawn out of the water, and as the boat 
drifted down the river and away from the battle line 
the courier who had been a second time baffled was 
flung unceremoniously into the hold; the hatches 
were clapped over him and the boat was rushed 
swiftly down the shallow river to Tien Tsin. 

For two hours Ned lay there in the uncertainty of 
darkness, expecting every moment to be hauled out 
to death, or stabbed where he lay in the gloom. 

Suddenly the hatch was shoved aside and an in- 
quiring face looked down upon the captive. 

“ Are you English ? ” 

The query was in admirable English, though with 
an unmistakable Eastern tinge. 

“ No, sir; I am American,” answered Ned. “ Am 
I your prisoner ? ” 

“ You seem to be, sir,” the captor answered, 
“ though truly I cannot say. I am neither of the 
Righteous Harmony Fists, whom you wrongly call 
the Boxers, nor am I of the Imperial troops. I am a 
Chinese merchant, Ah Wong, by name and I have 
been two years in your Omaha. Will you permit one 
American to rescue another ? ” 

Ned fairly stared at his rescuer. 

“ Why, that is fine ! ” he exclaimed. “ Kindly let 
me go back to the allied forces above or send me into 


48 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

the consulates in Tien Tsin. I must return to duty.” 

“ All in good time my friend,” the Americanized 
Chinaman replied. “ It is not wise to try the one or 
attempt the other. The Harmony Fists are clenched 
in anger and a white man is in danger, when found 
alone in the midst of his enemies. Pray leave the 
affair in my hands. I will see you to safety.” 

The American would have objected to this de- 
cision but he realized that placed as he was he was 
powerless, so he accepted the situation as was his 
wont, determined to keep his eyes open for possible 
opportunities. 

An opportunity came in due time. For as the 
river-boat drifted out of the fray and down the Pei 
Ho under the walls of Tien Tsin Ned began to real- 
ize, what the Chinese merchant from Omaha had as- 
sured him that the foreigners in the city of Tien Tsin 
were no better off than the allies outside its walls. 

The whole province of Shan Tung seemed aroused 
against the invaders. The retreat of Admiral Sey- 
mour inflamed this spirit of opposition and led the 
Chinese to believe that they could overcome, drive 
away or put an end to the unwelcome foreigners. 

“ Kill the foreign devils ! ” The Boxers’ war cry 
rang through northern China and thousands and still 
other thousands hurried to join the hordes surround- 
ing Seymour’s plucky force and the imprisoned for- 
eigners in Tien Tsin. 


THE RELIEF OF THE RELIEF 


49 


“ My friend, it is a misfortune,” the Omaha 
merchant said ; “ but who can conquer the Chinese 
who rise against you ? I am of America. I am for 
a new China, but my brothers here will not heed my 
advice and would send all foreigners to death. And 
can you blame them ? It is China for the Chinese as 
it is America for the Americans. The best thing on 
earth is happiness, and my brothers of China from 
the experiences of the centuries, have learned wis- 
dom and do not find happiness in the race for wealth, 
the struggle for power, the haste and hurry and 
worry of my brothers of America. Nothing troubles 
my people here so long as the conscience is clear, and 
they hold it as a matter of conscience to keep out the 
new things the outside world would force upon them 
— things new to you but old, very old to us. But I 
do not feel that way. I am of America. I love my 
brothers of America. I would help you, where I 
would not lift a finger for your so-called allies — 
allies only in name who would push America to the 
wall, in commerce, in possessions, in the struggle for 
power. They would, but, hear me! they dare not 
now. They have heard of your Admiral Dewey at 
Manila and his guns have made them fear the great 
America they once despised. So they invite your 
people to come and help carve up China.” 

“ But we don't want to carve China,” Ned replied. 
“ .We only wish to have the door open so that we can 


50 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

come in and trade with China; we only insist that 
what Americans are here shall be protected, — mis- 
sionaries, consuls, business men, all.” 

The Omaha merchant smiled incredulously. 

“ The American plans well and shrewdly,” he 
said. “ If China is to save herself she must be 
American and not Chinese. But, what will you ? I 
am but one, and those who hate the foreigners — 
from Empress to China boy — are millions.” 

Ned, too, felt just then that numbers had won the 
day and he reasoned that, in his position, discretion 
was the better part of valor; but even as he weighed 
the chances of escape or action, the boat glided 
into the narrow muddy-brown roadstead of Tien 
Tsin, past the walls of the native city on the left 
bank and under the lofty buildings of the foreign 
concession. There came from seething Tien Tsin 
the sounds of restlessness and riot. The smoke of 
burning buildings hung above the mission chapels of 
the native city, and the flames were drawing nearer 
and nearer the foreign concessions. Ned felt that 
he simply could not float by, disregardful of the dan- 
ger of the Europeans in threatened Tien Tsin. With- 
out stopping to consider his own safety and, mind- 
ful of the desperate situation of the relief force 
above he slipped over the side of the river-boat while 
its owner and crew were excitedly endeavoring to 
carry her out of the dangerous neighborhood of the 


THE RELIEF OF THE RELIEF 


5i 


concession walls and, relying on his excellent swim- 
ming powers, was soon striking out for a break in 
the river wall of “ the bund ” in the British conces- 
sion. 

He did not know it was the British concession; 
all he was seeking was a footing on dry land; but as 
his head emerged from the river beneath the surface 
of which he had been doing his “ under water ” act, 
he heard a challenge and found himself covered by 
the guns of the marine guard. 

“ Hi, there ! keep off, you bloody Chinaman or 
we’ll fire,” he heard them say. 

He lifted head and hand above the turbid tide. 

“I’m no China boy; I’m American,” he cried. 
“ Help me out.” 

“ Yankee or no Yankee, you don’t land here,” one 
of the guards shouted back. “ Them’s our orders 
and — By Jove! he is Yankee, sure enough,” he 
broke out as Ned, despite the challenge floated yet 
nearer to this questionable safety; “don’t fire on 
him, boys. He is one of us, I fancy.” 

“ One of us ! well, I should say so. Don’t you 
chaps dare fire at him. My hat! it’s what’s his 
name — Pevear — Ned Pevear, from up the river. 
Lend a hand, lads. Fish him out. I thought he 
was done for, sure; and blest if he hasn’t been swim- 
ming down the Pei-ho from above the arsenal.” 

The excited and explosive command was as ex- 


5 2 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


citedly obeyed by the marines on the bund and Ned 
Pevear was forthwith fished out of the Pei-ho only 
to clasp the outstretched hand of Tom Dickson the 
English lad, who, after all, had got into the city be- 
fore him. 

“ How under the sun did you get here first, 
Tom ? ” he queried as he stood dripping and aston- 
ished on the embankment. 

“ On a griffin, lad,” replied the smiling Tom. 
“ That’s lots better than swimming. How did you 
stand it so long? My eye! you’re a oner in the 
water.” 

Ned explained, and Tom, expressing his doubts as 
to the truth of the Omaha merchant, congratulated 
Ned on his escape from more treachery. 

“ That fellow was fooling you, I’ll wager,” he 
said. “ I wouldn’t trust a returned Chinaman any 
more’n I would the home bred article. They’re all 
tarred with the same stick, and I have heard that you 
Yankees don’t really welcome the Chinese in your 
parts. They bear malice, they do, in spite of all 
their bland and childlike smiles, and most of ’em 
carry knives up their sleeves. I’ll bet your Omaha 
friend did, too.” 

Ned was more charitable than this, but he was 
glad nevertheless to be among his own and proceeded 
with Tom to make his report to the American consul 
at Tien Tsin. 


THE RELIEF OF THE RELIEF 


53 


It was superflous information, for Tom had al- 
ready made the same report. But one corroborated 
the other, and the senior officer in command hastened 
to call a council as to the possibility of relieving Ad- 
miral Seymour at the arsenal. 

The discussion was but a brief one. For the ugly 
truth was apparent to all that instead of being able to 
afford relief to Admiral Seymour’s column above the 
city, the foreigners in Tien Tsin themselves needed 
relief. The city was entirely in the hands of the na- 
tives; the foreign concession was surrounded and 
threatened; the least effort at relief, the least ag- 
gressive move by the fleets at Taku might make the 
foreigners prisoners in a beleaguered city, and in- 
flame yet more the Boxers and their sympathizers. 

“ Seymour must fight his way through,” was the 
decision. “ We need his force here even more than 
he needs us — and we cannot go to him.” 

Scarcely had this decision been taken when alarm- 
ing reports came from the port of Taku, twenty-five 
miles below. Desiring to land forces from the war- 
ships for the relief of Admiral Seymour, Pekin and 
the missions, the foreign powers saw the necessity of 
obtaining the command of Taku harbor, dominated 
by seven mud-walled forts. They requested the 
Chinese commander to give up the possession of his 
forts, giving him a few hours for decision. Before 
the time limit was up the forts fired on the fleet; 


54 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


the fleets replied, and after a six-hour engagement 
the defences of Taku were in the hands of the allies; 
their flags were flying in possession. 

When these tidings came up the river to Tien Tsin 
the Chinese were furious. The “ Foreign Devils ” 
were evidently bent on invasion and conquest; the 
only course open to Chinamen was to rise against 
all foreigners and sweep them into the sea. 

At once Prince Tuan, the Chinese leader, led for- 
ward his thousands to the slaughter of the foreign- 
ers. The Boxers and soldiers within and without the 
city surrounded the foreign quarter — or concessions ; 
armed troops with modern guns and artillery as- 
saulted the allied reserves inside the walls — a scant 
two thousand against a host. 

The situation was desperate. All Northern China 
seemed banded against the foreigners. Seymour was 
besieged in the Imperial Arsenal without the city; 
the allies within seemed hardly able to hold their 
frail defences, and a double relief was necessary. 
Tien Tsin was fighting for its life. 

“ The fleets must help us; they must send us rein- 
forcements,” said the Russian rear admiral, who 
commanded as senior in Tien Tsin in Seymour’s ab- 
sence. “ Who will ride with a summons for relief? ” 

And when Ned Pevear heard the inquiry he 
answered it quickly. 

“ Let me try,” he said. “ I will ride to Taku.” 


THE RELIEF OF THE RELIEF 55 

The Russian “ sized up ” the eager and willing 
lad. 

“ Ha ! it is ever young America for action/' he 
said. “ You shall go, my friend, but let me send a 
Cossack escort with you." 

“ I had rather have Tom Dickson," the American 
replied; “ but the Cossacks may keep us company if 
they don’t get in our way." 

The admiral laughed. 

“Company? The rough riders of the steppes!" 
he exclaimed; “and how might they get in your way, 
little brother ? " 

“This is no Wild West show," Ned exclaimed; 
“ this is business ; and I don’t wish to ride hampered 
or be saddled with responsibilities." 

“ I speak but for your safety and for the cause of 
the allied forces," the admiral explained. “ See to 
it that responsibility does not saddle you, my young 
American. The Cossacks shall go as a reserve escort 
rather than as impediments. Select your comrade 
and ride for life or death." 

One hour later Ned and Tom Dickson were in the 
saddle; the three Cossacks insisted upon by the Rus- 
sian admiral awaited them before the door of the 
Russian consulate and the ride for relief began. 

The foreign concessions were already surrounded 
and in danger as the riders passed the gate; the shells 
were screaming over Gordon Hall, while the river 


56 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


front and the concession walls were both within the 
line of fire; but out from the beleaguered city the 
five ponies sprang, urged on by whip and spur, and 
clearing the south gate, rode for dear life to Taku. 

Taku by the highway and not by the railroad is 
fully fifty miles from Tien Tsin, and over this nar- 
row way they galloped for relief. The drilled sol- 
diers and artillerists, investing the city were skilfully 
avoided; but for the armed Boxers and undisciplined 
mobs they cared little; the yell of the Yankees’ charge 
that scattered the Filipinos in Luzon, the sturdy 
British cheer that rang in victory over the stubborn 
Boers, the stinging whips of the Cossack rough rid- 
ers that are the terror of a Cossack dash, scattered 
the encompassing Chinamen left and right; through 
village after village the five rode at breakneck speed, 
unharmed by Chinese bullets, unstayed by Chinese 
obstacles, their whips their main weapons of attack 
and defence, their spurs keeping the sturdy if un- 
kempt “ griffins ” or Chinese ponies up to the work. 

All that afternoon and all the night they rode, and 
when daylight fell upon the distant walls of the forts 
of Taku, defended by the guns of the allies and pro- 
tected by the forty warships of the allied fleets, they 
knew their work was done and that assistance was 
at hand. 

“ To the admiral’s flagship!” Ned ordered the 
boatman at the landing, and while Tom hurried to 


THE RELIEF OF THE RELIEF 


57 

the British commander, Ned sped down the harbor to 
the Newark , the flagship of Admiral Kempff. 

“From Tien Tsin?” the admiral demanded, as 
Ned almost dropped on the deck; “what’s wrong 
there ? ” 

“ The city is in danger, sir,” Ned reported; “ the 
Chinese troops and Chinese cannon are threatening 
the foreign concessions and the Russian admiral says 
that unless relief or reinforcements are speedily sent 
the refugees and allies in the city will be overpowered 
and killed.” 

It was the first intimation that Admiral Kempff 
had received of the peril of Tien Tsin. Before night 
a council was called; reinforcements were decided 
upon; the tidings of danger went singing over the 
wire around the world, and the allied powers hurried 
away new armies for the relief of Tien Tsin. 

From Manchuria and India and the Philippines, 
from French treaty ports and German concessions, 
from near-by Japan and far-off European colonies, 
the ships of war and transports came hurrying across 
the sea and all the world stood in grim defiance be- 
fore the dragon-guarded door of the Forbidden 
Kingdom. 

But first in Taku hasty means for relief were at 
once set on foot and three thousand men of all the 
allied nations hurried out of Taku and headed for 
Tien Tsin 


58 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Ned found a place in the advance of one hundred 
and thirty marines despatched in the first section of 
the American reinforcements under Major Waller. 

Tom Dickson and he had parted company; for 
Tom, reporting on the British flagship, marched out 
with the British column, while Waller’s little body 
of Yankee marines had pushed ahead in the advance. 

It was a difficult duty which the new relief column 
had undertaken. With less than three thousand men 
it must meet and disperse the hordes of yellow clans- 
men, soldiers and Boxers, who surrounded and 
threatened the beleaguered foreign garrison in Tien 
Tsin; if absolute defeat were not possible the relief 
force must at least revictual, reinforce and get sup- 
plies of ammunition to the harassed force within the 
walls and help the besieged hold off the encompass- 
ing Chinamen until a sufficient force of allied troops 
should fight its way from Taku. 

This, the little vanguard of Waller’s one hundred 
and thirty marines and the Russian colonel with his 
four hundred Russians must needs first attempt, and 
they went to work undaunted by the mighty odds. 

With two field pieces the train conveying this ad- 
vance steamed to the limit of the protected railway, 
nearly halfway to Tien Tsin; thence the men pressed 
ahead, on foot, while the train returned for reinforce- 
ments. 

“ Beware of ambuscades just before you reach the 


THE RELIEF OF THE RELIEF 


59 


city,” came the warning to the relief columns; but 
Waller and his men scarcely needed this advice, for 
an ambuscade was the one thing most expected by 
those who had fought in China jungles and Luzon 
swamps 

Within eight miles of< Tien Tsin the railway was 
found to be destroyed and the vanguard cautiously 
felt their way. Over the sorghum-fields, climbing 
mud banks and sand hills the little force traversed 
the great alluvial plain that stretches from the Yel- 
low Sea to the hills behind Pekin, but, before they 
were in sight of Tien Tsin’s mud built walls, the 
enemy was upon them near the lower arsenal and 
caught by a heavy fire at front and flank, the five 
hundred were forced back by five thousand, after a 
stiff four hours’ fight. 

They waited only for the second detachment to 
come up ; then they went at it again. 

“ Hello, Tom! there you are, eh? ” cried Ned, as 
Commander Cradock’s British naval brigade, just up 
from Taku, came hurrying to the support of the 
checked advance. “ I thought I was going to get in 
ahead of you. Now we’ll go in together.” 

“ First stop on my new way to Pekin,” said Tom; 
“ longest way round is the shortest way home, you 
know.” 

“ All right as long as you take me in with you,” 
Ned declared. “ We ran up against a host and they 


6o 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


were too much for us. But now you’ve come I 
reckon we’ll be up and at it again.” 

Ned was right; Major Waller scarcely let the 
night pass before he was again afield. At four in the 
morning with his own slender command and Crad- 
ock’s five hundred British marines, he marched in 
two columns on Tien Tsin. Side by side the allied 
flags pressed forward, England and America in the 
advance ; the Germans and Russians hammered away 
at the arsenal to little avail; but the Yankee and 
Britishers led by Waller relieved this assailing force 
and combining the detachments, dashed straight at 
the embattled walls of Tien Tsin. 

One of the defending parapets was particularly 
vigorous in resisting the assault; the shells from its 
modern guns burst over the allied attack and severely 
checked the advance. 

Waller’s blood was up. 

“ We’ll carry that wall, boys,” he cried, “ or we’ll 
know the reason why,” he said. “ Now, then! at ’em. 
Forward ! ” 

The Yankee marines, the Welsh Fusileers and 
Captain Gwynne with his British marines, a slim 
but determined forlorn hope, charged headlong 
across the open and scaling the walls like rats, actu- 
ally drove the Chinese defenders from their guns, 
surprising and scattering them so by this headlong 


THE RELIEF OF THE RELIEF 61 

dash that the Chinese garrison simply could not 
withstand the charge. 

Back in terror they fell before the onward rush of 
the “ foreign devils ; ” their armament, sufficient if 
well handled to hold a brigade at bay, was silenced, 
and when Lieutenant Jolly's forty marines swarmed 
over the second parapet even the disciplined troops 
of China turned into flight, while the British com- 
pany that followed at Jolly’s heels added the last 
touch to the terror of the defenders when, springing 
to the captured armament on the parapet, they turned 
the rifled cannon and the nine pounders upon their 
late assailants and sent destruction into the Boxer 
ranks. 

Ned Pevear, as a volunteer aid, was foremost in 
the exciting rush, while Tom Dickson, running with 
the British blue jackets, fought beside his friend. 

Over the parapet they leaped together and Ned 
seeing the dragon flag fluttering above the stricken 
Chinese ranks made a dash for it, ^hilel Tom 
whirled about one of the nine pounders, and levelled 
the piece at its late owners. 

For an instant the Chinese soldiers sought to de- 
fend their standard, but Yankee cutlasses and Brit- 
ish pistols were too much for them, and as the de- 
fenders turned in flight Ned made a dash at the Im- 
perial flag, tore it from the bearer’s hand and as the 


62 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

officer in command made one final lunge at the young 
assailant of the colors, Ned gave him such a back- 
handed stroke as tumbled him over in a heap and the 
next instant the American stood alone, the captured 
flag in his hand. 

He heard a voice at his feet. 

“ Quarter ! quarter ! ” it demanded in broken 
English, and Ned, remembering the universal 
opinion that no Boxer should be permitted to live, 
hesitated an instant. 

“ Are you a Boxer ? ” he demanded, looking down 
upon his suppliant. 

“ Nein, nein,” came the reply in German. “ You 
are the young American who saved me once before, 
no? I am forced against my will. Spare me and I 
can lead you to loot, valuable loot, yes. A second 
time let me go free. See, I surrender my sword.” 

Ned looked closely at the man. His German and 
his broken English surely were not Chinese, and then 
Ned recalled the face. It was that of the officer 
whom he had overthrown and then set free when, 
with Seymour’s men, he stood against the Chinese 
hordes on the broken railway tracks at Lang Fang. 


CHAPTER IV 
ned's prisoner 

“ What are you, anyhow — Chinaman, Dutchman 
or renegade Yankee? ” Ned demanded. “ And why 
are you here after I freed you once ? ” 

“ I am a German, impressed into the Imperial 
ranks, because I had been drill master,” the prisoner 
replied. “ Help me to mine own again and I will 
yield myself prisoner to you — to you and not to 
Frenchmen, Russian or German, I pray. See, I will 
give you my parole.” 

Leniency or help to wounded and prisoners had 
been the first practice of the allies as representatives 
of Christian nations; but when it was seen that they 
were faced by fanatical hordes who neither knew nor 
practiced mercy, the word had quietly spread through 
the armies that to Boxers, as to murderers, no quar- 
ter was to be shown. 

The question had never come so closely to Ned 
Pevear before. When brought face to face with it, 
however, he could not decide upon what seemed to 
him murder. 

“ German impressed into the Imperial troops, 
63 


64 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


eh?” he said. “Well, that lets you out; you’re no 
Boxer. Get off those heathen togs and dress like a 
white man once more, and then over with us into 
the city. It’s no place for masqueraders; you’ve got 
to be for us or against us. See ! there’s a poor fellow 
who has no use for clothes of any kind. Get into his 
coat and trousers quick, and over the wall with me.” 

There was scant time for hesitation. The allies 
were swarming over the second parapet ; the Chinese 
were making a bold stand in defence of their town, 
and great guns upon the Chinese walls were being 
pounded into silence by the rapid-fire guns which the 
allies rushed into position. 

The dead German soldier was quickly divested of 
coat, cap and trousers and the impressed German 
captain of Chinese troops, “ made a white man 
again ” as Ned declared, was beside his deliverer, 
leaping across the captured parapets of Tien Tsin’s 
outer wall. Then, suddenly, resistance turned to re- 
treat; the leap of the “ foreign devils ” over the mud 
barricades quite terrified the defenders of the walls ; 
they broke before the charge and, neck and neck, 
Americans and British led the storming party 
through the breach they had won. 

“ Great work, eh, lad,” came Tom’s cheery greet- 
ing as Ned with his captured flag and his “ redeemed 
Boxer ” halted at the rendezvous near the Taku 
gate. “ I fancy honors were even with us ; we both 


NED’S PRISONER 


65 


crossed the string together. Hullo! caught a ban- 
ner, did you? Good for you. And who’s your 
friend ? ” 

Ned passed the gilded staff of the captured ban- 
ner to Tom Dickson for inspection. 

“ Don’t really know him yet,” he replied, with a 
laugh; “he’s a captive of my bow and spear, any- 
how, Tom. A German in the Boxer ranks, only I 
changed his togs and made a Christian of him to 
save his life.” 

“ A renegade white man ! ” cried Tom. “ By 
Jove! he’s not fit to live, he isn’t. Better turn him 
over to the Germans for discipline. They’ll reason 
with him, I’ll wager. There’s no quarter for such 
cattle, you know,” and the English lad threw a vin- 
dictive glance toward the captured renegade. 

“ Sir, I appeal to my captor,” the German replied. 
“ I gave my parole, and I have fought beside him in 
the charge.” 

“ That’s like you,” said Tom. “ You fellows are 
bound to be on the winning side, never mind who’s 
hurt. Don’t have anything to do with him, Ned. 
He’ll get you into trouble. A Christian leading these 
pagans ! My hat ! there’s no punishment too severe 
for such low-downs ; eh, boys ? ” 

Tommies and marines were gathering about the 
imperilled German, and they echoed the English lad’s 
impulsive words. 


66 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ True for ye. That’s so, boy,” came the response. 
“He’s no right to live; down with him!” they 
shouted. 

“ What are you talking about, Tom,” demanded 
Ned; “ this is my business, this is. I promised this 
man his life if he’d join us, and he did. He’s one of 
those impressed drill masters; he had to fight with 
the Chinks or die; and I reckon he wasn’t fighting 
much. I’ve faced him twice and he didn’t do a thing. 
Besides, Tom, he’s my prisoner; and I’m not going 
to give him up. Who’ll take him ? ” 

As he spoke Ned stepped before his prisoner and 
clutched the staff of his prize banner significantly. 
Englishmen and Americans hustled towards him 
defiantly. Then the bugle blew for assembly, and 
with the easy laugh of victors the little allied force 
fell into order as Major Waller and Commander 
Cradock came hurrying down the line. 

“ Boys,” said the major, “ you did well. But, 
watch out! we’ve got to hold this line until the re- 
lief comes up. They’re not far behind. Can you do 
it?” 

“ Aye, aye, sir,” rang out the hearty English and 
American response, and the major, his eyes beaming 
with pride and determination, nodded approval. 

“ I knew it,” he said, “ and so did the commander 
here. We can trust you, — ah, lad, you got one, too, 
eh? ” he added as he caught sight of Ned’s captured 


NED’S PRISONER 


67 


standard. “ Good work, that. I won’t forget it. 
You were the volunteer aid and scout from Sey- 
mour’s column, weren’t you ? ” 

“ Yes, major,” Ned replied, saluting. 

“ Well, lad, I’m going to send you back to Sey- 
mour,” said the major. “ He’s where you left him, 
I reckon, near the north arsenal, and he’s just helio- 
graphed that his position is desperate and that he 
can’t hold out over two days. I want him to know 
that the relief is on its way and will help him out, 
God willing, before another day’s sun sets. Will you 
tell him so ? ” 

“ Yes, major,” was Ned’s answer. 

“ You will start right off,” the major ordered. 
“ Colonel Schivinsky and his Russians will go for- 
ward at once, and a second allied detachment will 
follow him. But you can get in with word of relief 
ahead of the columns if you can slip through.” 

“ Ay, ay, sir,” Ned replied. “ Will my trophy 
and my prisoner be cared for until I join the force 
again ? ” 

“Trophy? O, the banner? Certainly, lad,” the 
major replied, “ and duly credited. But the prisoner 
— what prisoner ? ” 

Ned pointed to the German drill master at his 
side. 

“ This man, major,” he said. “ He was an im- 
pressed drill master fighting in the Boxer ranks — 


68 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


but under protest. He surrendered to me and I took 
his parole.” 

“ A parole — from a renegade cut-throat ? ” cried 
the major. “ That is outside the law, lad. There 
is no mercy shown to renegade white men fighting 
in these bloody Boxer ranks against their own. Turn 
him over to the provost. We’ll deal with him 
later.” 

“ But, major, my word ? I have given it, sir,” Ned 
protested. “ And there is no wrong in the man. He 
was forced in and he fought well by my side after I 
took his word. Don’t let me break promise with him, 
major. See, I’ll be responsible for him. Let him 
come with me.” 

Major Waller exchanged looks with Commander 
Cradock. The Englishman nodded. 

“ Let’s trust him to the young ’un, major,” said 
the commander. “ I’d take the lad’s promise and 
the turn-coat is fairly his spoil. I don’t take to these 
fellows either, but we don’t want to judge unheard. 
Make your American boy responsible for him and, 
on his report, we can deal with the renegade later. 
Things are not always as black as they seem to be, 
you know.” 

“ As you say, commander,” the major assented. 
“ You’re responsible for your prisoner, Pevear. Will 
you leave him with us ? ” 

“ Never, never,” whispered Ned’s prisoner. “ Take 


NED’S PRISONER 69 

me with you, my friend. See, I can help you 
through, perhaps.” 

Ned looked the German “ Boxer ” fairly in the eye. 
Then he laid a hand on his arm. 

“ I think I’ll take him with me, major, if you 
don’t object,” he said. “ It’s safer, so, and — he’ll be 
among friends.” 

“ Friends ! ” cried Tom Dickson. “ Yes — his 
Boxers. Don’t you trust him, Ned. Friends, in- 
deed! Fancy!” 

“ No, Tom,” returned Ned with a smile, “ he’ll be 
with me. I’m all the friends he’s got just now, it 
seems, and I’ll trust him.” 

“ Then, hanged if I don’t go with you to watch 
your friend,” cried Tom. “ Have I your permis- 
sion, Commander Cradock ? ” 

“ You have mine, sir, if you have that of the 
young American — your friend, eh ? ” the com- 
mander replied, 

“ Too good a friend to lose, sir,” replied Tom. 
“ How is it, Ned — can I ride with you? ” 

“Can you? Well, I should smile, Tom!” cried 
the American. “ I wouldn’t like anything better. 
Two’s company, you know.” 

“ Hm, yes,” said Tom, with a glance of suspicion 
toward “ the reformed Boxer,” as he called Ned’s 
prisoner, “ and three’s a crowd.” 

“ Well, don’t crowd him too much, lad; give the 


70 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

fellow a show,” retorted Ned and with the English 
lad, half puzzled over the American’s joke, the 
“ griffins ” were requisitioned at once and before 
half an hour had passed the three oddly assorted 
comrades were riding out of the Taku gate, and, 
skirting the native city, followed the river road 
toward the camp of the beleaguered Seymour, ten 
miles to the north east. 

They rode rapidly as they were able ; but they gal- 
loped cautiously, too, and away from the hostile 
groups of Chinese who filled the outlying villages 
with their illy disciplined troops and long handled 
banners. And as they rode the reclaimed German 
gave them information and suggestions that seemed 
so valuable that even Tom’s suspicions were some- 
what allayed. 

“ My name is Ullman,” said he, “ Captain Carl 
Ullman of the German army. I was two years resi- 
dent instructor in an English academy, and for two 
years I have had the appointment of drill master in 
the Chinese service. I was in the north when this 
trouble broke out, and my only hope of life was to 
serve in the Boxer ranks, trusting to the chance to 
escape when I was near the armies of civilization. 
But I could not desert. That is disgrace. I fought 
only in seeming, and behold ! — I am prisoner in fair 
fight. The conscience is clear, my friends. Now, 
these Chinamen are my foes; and, look you! they 


NED’S PRISONER 


7i 


are foes to civilization. Ach , this China! it is a 
land devoured by secret societies; and each would 
have the mastery while all are slaves to orders and 
superstitions.’ , 

“ Even the government? ” queried Tom. 

“ Ach! the government/’ cried Captain Ullman. 
“ What is the government ? It is the worst of all. 
The prince Tuan who is now in power he is the 
creature of what you call the Boxers* — the bloodiest 
of all these secret societies. His word is law; that 
word is death to the foreigners, and, presto! they 
die.” 

“ What ! the ministers in Pekin? Massacred, do 
you mean?” cried Tom. “ They never would 
dare.” 

“ Dare ! when the secret societies and the chief 
officials say yes? You do not know these Chinese, 
my friend,” said the German. “ Hear you. Let 
me tell you what I have heard this day from Pekin. 
Not a foreigner is to be left alive. Orders have gone 
to escort them all to Tien Tsin under guard. And 
under guard of whom? The Imperial troops — : 
Boxers in disguise. Hear me! Not one of those 
foreigners — ambassadors, missionaries, merchants — 
man, woman or child — will ever get five miles from 
Pekin alive. They were to leave to-day. Himmel ! 
it is sad; they are all dead now.” 

Ned gave his griffin a resounding thwack. 


72 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Horrible ! and we ride mooning along here,” 
he said. “ Ride for your life, Tom. I’ll get through 
to the admiral at once and if he don’t fight his way 
back to save the refugees or hamstring those treach- 
erous Chinks, then I’ll turn pagan and run a pagoda. 
Get on, Jehoshaphat! we’ve no time to lose,” and 
again he thwacked his sturdy griffin. 

“ No, but we have our lives to lose, my young 
friend,” said the German. “ And of what use may 
we be to the Admiral Seymour or the refugees with- 
out lives to help them. Ride cautious, I pray. See ! 
behold now; beyond there. It is a host, eh? It is 
reinforcements for the Boxers at Tien Tsin. See; 
they swarm at the railway station; look you, they 
are to left and to right. We must use strategy my 
friends, or we ride no further in freedom. Stay 
you here until I meet them.” 

“And give us over as prisoners, eh? Not if I 
can stop you,” cried Tom, all his suspicions return- 
ing as he forced his pony in front of Ullman to turn 
him back. 

But Ned interfered. 

“ What’s the use, Tom,” he said; “ Doubting is no 
good, and interference won’t help us. Give the cap’n 
a show. I’m taking stock in him, I am. We’ve 
got to get through or by those chaps, and I’ll trust 
to him. He knows these Chinks better than we do. 
I’ll risk it; go ahead, cap. We’ll wait for you.” 


NED’S PRISONER 


73 


Tom dropped beside his friend grumbling, and the 
German rode ahead toward the advancing mass of 
Boxers that had so suddenly confronted them. 

Ullman sprang from his horse and deliberately 
rolled up his right trousers leg, and holding his right 
hand above his head with three fingers spread out he 
advanced to meet the Boxers; then, laying his left 
hand on his breast, the thumb and forefinger bent 
and the other fingers shut, he turned the palm of his 
right hand inward and stood still, waiting. 

A half dozen men sprang from the Boxer ranks 
and came toward the German with inquiring signs. 
Now right hand and now left hand played their part 
in all manner of crooks and bends and fingerings, 
until Ned decided it was a deaf-mute conversation. 
But suddenly a shrill cry of inquiry came straight at 
the German from one of the Boxer advance. 

With an equally shrill Chinese “ Yes,” Captain 
Ullman held up his left hand with the thumb nail 
pressed against the second finger, whereupon the 
Boxers flung out their hands as if in welcome and 
the German turned to his younger comrades with a 
nod of re-assurance. 

There came fresh questionings in Chinese which 
Tom could not understand; then, suddenly, they 
saw a Boxer catch the German by his military 
jacket and call out shrilly to his friends. 

A roar as of distrust broke from the encompassing 


74 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


throng, which Captain Ullman tried to allay, but 
seemingly to no purpose, for, suddenly he wheeled 
about and striding toward the two boys he shouted 
to them, “ Turn and ride back for your lives, friends! 
I will hold them in parley. Ach, himmel! I was 
right save in one little thing. I forgot to let down 
one corner of my jacket. Ride for your lives. Re- 
gard me not.” 

Even before he had concluded, the two lads had 
wheeled their griffins about and were galloping for 
dear life to Tien Tsin; and still, as they rode, they 
could hear above the shrill cries of the Boxers the 
deeper tones of the German drill master, bidding 
them spur and ride. 

“ It’s no use, Ned,” said Tom. “ They’ll get us 
before we can make the town. Hang your Dutch- 
man! I’ll wager we could have got along better 
without him and his bloomin’ sign-language.” 

“ We can take to the river if we get blown, Tom,” 
said Ned; “ but don’t try it until we have to.” 

He looked around swiftly. 

“ They’re after us; but we’ve got the lead on ’em,” 
he said. “If these little beasts don’t take it into 
their heads to throw us or lie down under us we 
may — ” 

“ Hello ! ” Tom gave a cry of mingled hope and 
fear. “ Look there, Ned. What’s yonder, ahead of 
us?” 



The two lads were galloping for dear life. 
































































NED’S PRISONER 


75 


Both boys peered into the distance ahead as they 
galloped on. A cloud of dust and a mass of 
horsemen appeared in the south, bearing down on 
them. 

“ No use, lad; it’s all up with us now, I fancy,” 
said Tom. “ It’s another batch of Boxers. We’re 
surrounded.” 

“ They don’t ride like Boxers, Tom,” said Ned, 
shading his eyes with his hand and flinging his 
glance as far ahead as possible. “ Look at that. 
No Chinaman ever gets that gallop and swing. And 
see, Tom; see, they’re carrying spears or lances. 
Hey, lad, go for ’em! We’re all right. It’s the 
Cossack Cavalry, heading the relief for Seymour. 
Spur on and tell ’em what’s in the path.” 

Ned’s report was correct. The riders were neither 
Boxers nor Imperial troops. They were the ad- 
vance of Schivinsky’s relief pushing on to the aid of 
Seymour. 

The lads rode on and hailing the galloping ad- 
vance reported the obstacle in the path. 

“ Thousands you say, little brother ? ” queried the 
Russian major who led the advance, “ and how 
many thousands, now ? ” 

Ned had the eyes of a scout and the head of a good 
judge of numbers. 

“ Oh, twelve or fifteen thousand at the least,” he 
replied. “ They are massed about the old railway 


76 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


station, and they have captured our interpreter. 
What will you do ? ” 

“ Do? Why, there is but one thing to do, friend,” 
said the major. “We go ahead as ordered.” 

“ Good for you ! ” cried both the boys with enthu- 
siasm. 

“ It’ll be a bit tropical, I fancy,” said Tom; “ but 
Seymour’s got to be saved; and we don’t mind a 
little heat. Do we charge through ’em, sir ? ” 

“ Charge and scatter,” the Russian replied. “ Do 
you ride with us, gentlemen ? ” 

“Every time,” replied Ned, “eh, Tom?” And 
Tom nodded his head vigorously. 

“ Right you are, Ned,” he agreed. “ We ride 
wherever the advance goes, don’t you know.” 

There came a sharp, quick guttural command; the 
compact line of cavalrymen, only seven hundred in 
all, thundered along the horrible Pekin road; then 
as, ahead not three hundred yards, the mass of defi- 
ant Boxers, seventeen thousand at least, held the 
wrecked railway and the river road, again the sharp 
command rolled out, and the seven hundred deploy- 
ing into a thin, extended line, with brandished whips 
and curdling Cossack yells, dashed at a mad gallop 
straight upon the hesitating Chinese mass. 

For an instant hesitation seemed ready to stiffen 
into decision and action. The thousands wavered 
about their tossing standards, and then with every 


NED’S PRISONER 


77 


warlike instrument from pitchfork to Mauser bran- 
dished in air, the Boxers came on as if to engulf and 
overthrow that thin Cossack line by mere strength 
of numbers. Gongs clashed and drums boomed 
while, from the open flanks, the field cannon, 
dragged into action, essayed to play upon the brave 
seven hundred. 

But the seven hundred had what the seventeen 
thousand lacked — discipline, concentration and obe- 
dience to orders. 

The yells grew in force and volume; the major 
in command, with reassuring and invigorating 
words charged with his men, and both Ned Pevear 
and Tom Dickson felt the blood tingle in every vein 
and confidence strengthen in every nerve as they too 
galloped on with that thin, unswerving, insistent 
line of gray. 

Then, — Ned never could tell just how it came 
about, — they were in the thick of it, almost in an 
instant. The Cossack whips, as much an implement 
of war as sword and gun, cracked above the heads 
of the dashing ponies as in solid front the extended 
line struck the Chinese mass, struck it, wound 
around it like some monster snake, broke through it, 
compressed and expanded again and sent the seven- 
teen thousand scattering in wild flight before these 
“mad savages of the North,” as China voted the 
Cossacks to be. 


7 8 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Then they slackened speed, whirled about at the 
word of command and with ready rifles “ plunked ” 
a swift shower of lead into the broken Boxer horde 
and still further scattered and demoralized the sur- 
prised and flying enemy. It was a victory of disci- 
pline — seven hundred against a host. And Ned and 
Tom were part of it all. They were simply radiant 
with enthusiasm, as, flushed with the excitement of 
triumph, they rallied to the bugle call which once 
again sent the deployed ranks of the Cossacks into 
a solid column and set the advance forward on their 
mission of relief. 

“ Great work that, major,” said Ned as they 
ranged beside the Russian officer with their hearty 
congratulations. 

“ I told you it would be a bit tropical,” said Tom, 
“ but, my hat ! what a ride it was. I wouldn’t have 
missed it for a farm.” 

“ It is the discipline, the strength of faith in the 
code, gentlemen,” the Russian replied. “ My chil- 
dren here are ever to be relied upon, and our 
allies — ” here he bowed courteously to the English 
and American lads — “ they were magnificent, believe 
me.” 

The boys saluted in acknowledgment of the Rus- 
sian’s compliment, and then suddenly Ned bethought 
himself of the German captain. 


NED’S PRISONER 


79 


“ I wonder what has become of our friend, Tom,” 
he said. 

“ What! the sign-talker? ” queried Tom. “ Gone 
to join his brothers of the pig- tails, I fancy. I won- 
der now whether — ” 

But Ned stopped his query with a cry of recogni- 
tion and alarm. For, even as he spoke, there rode 
up to the major in command, two Cossacks dragging 
between them the figure of the German captain, limp, 
dishevelled and half-spent. 

A word passed between soldiers and officers. 
Then the major spoke in English out of regard for 
his guests. 

“ See, gentlemen, a renegade among the pagans ; 
a white man in their ranks,” he said. “ Now shall 
you see Russian justice, sharp and swift. Tch!” 
and he raised his heavy cavalry sword. 

But Ned caught his arm. 

“No, sir! You shall not! he is my prisoner/'* 
cried the American. “ In the name of the United 
States I demand his life and his release.” 


CHAPTER V 


A GARRISON OF TWO 

The major of the Cossacks flung a laugh and a 
glance at the imperious young American; then as 
he saw that the lad was in earnest, he slowly lowered 
the lifted sword while his eye grew dark and his 
voice stern. 

“ What is it, little brother?” he said. “ You 
would stop the course of righteous vengeance? It 
is such as these that spoil the earth for gentlemen. 
The traitor must die.” 

“ He must not, sir,” the American replied. “ I 
know him,” and again he briefly told the German’s 
story. 

The major shook his head; but he put up his 
sword, and released his hold on the prisoner. 

“ One who can train Chinamen to fight no better 
than yon coward host,” he said with a contemptuous 
toss of his head toward the fleeing Boxers, “ does 
not even deserve decapitation. “ I—I trust him 
not. But see — he is yours, little brother — if once 
your captain has turned him over to you. See, 
again you are responsible for him. But — he was of 
80 


A GARRISON OF TWO 


81 


no avail to you when he met the Boxers. What will 
you with him? He looks in no condition to gallop 
with our riders. Will you leave him for his society 
friends the Boxers ? ” 

“ He shall have my pony until he gains strength 
or until I can find another/’ and the lad, actually 
hoisted the half conscious man to the back of his 
own stout little “ griffin.” 

This was too much for Tom. 

“ I don’t know whether I believe in this chap or 
not, Ned,” he said, “ but hang me, if you’re going to 
do all the Samaritan act. I can take a share in it 
too, I fancy. Here, let me have the cap’n. I’ll 
hold him on in front of me awhile and we’ll spell 
things a bit.” 

The major of Cossacks laughed. 

“ No need of that, gentlemen, while I’m in com- 
mand here,” he said. “ You, as I understand it 
have a mission upon which you ride. You cannot 
be encumbered with wounded men or any burden. 
Leave your charge with me. I promise to hand him 
over to you in good condition when we meet again. 
Do you gallop on as your orders run and bear the 
news of our coming to the Admiral Seymour. No,” 
as Ned hesitated, “ have no fear. I will care for 
your ‘ responsibility ’ as if it were mine own. It is 
mine — for I accept it. Ride on, allies ! ” 

And with a wave of the hand the Russian sped the 


82 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


two lads on their mission while a great Cossack lifted 
the wounded German to the saddle before him and 
then the advance went forward. 

But Ned and Tom spurred over the great plain, 
now free from Boxers and Chinese soldiers after 
the Russian charge, and halted not until far ahead 
they spied floating above the Imperial arsenal held 
by Seymour’s beleaguered troops, the allied flags 
that still told of occupation, safety and defiance. 

There was need for a stout show of that same de- 
fiance. All around the captured arsenal swarmed 
and whanged the besieging Chinese hordes — fanat- 
ics, Boxers and Imperial troops, bent on the over- 
throw and destruction of the foreign devils caged at 
last in the arsenal they had dared to steal from 
the Son of Heaven. 

The two lads halted, as from a slight rise they saw 
the problem before them. 

“ Can’t ride through that, eh Tom ? ” demanded 
Ned, sweeping plain and river with his eye, seeking 
some unguarded point where a boy on a pony might 
slip unnoticed through. 

“ It don’t look it, my son,” Tom Dickson an- 
swered. “ But we’ve got to do it.” 

“ Yes, or get word to the admiral in some other 
way,” Ned said, racking his brains for some way 
out. 

Suddenly Tom seized his arm. 


A GARRISON OF TWO 83 

“My hat! Ned; I’ve got it,” he cried. “Can 
you wig-wag ? ” 

“ Do I know the code, d’ye mean? ” queried Ned. 
“ I know what we use on shipboard ; but what good’ll 
that do? It may not be the allied code, and then 
where’ll we wig-wag from. There’s no hill or high 
place here that our folks can see us from unless we 
climb up — Great Scott ! ” he broke off with sudden 
exclamation, “ What’s the matter with that pagoda, 
Tom? If we can get up to the top we can work a 
saddle cloth for all we’re worth and perhaps some of 
McCalla’s marines will catch sight of it and know 
what we’re at How does the pagoda strike you? ” 

“ It’s immense, Ned,” Tom declared, adding, 
cautiously, “ if somebody don’t strike us before we 
get a chance at it. A pagoda! Why, that’s No 
Thoroughfare to foreign devils, Ned. It’s taboo 
to us.” 

“ ‘ Private way, dangerous passing,’ as they say 
in Boston, eh?” said Ned. “Well, I’ve driven up 
these No Thoroughfares before. I’ll try it if you’ll 
brace me up, old chap.” 

As if that “if” were needed! Young England 
was ready to second young America every time, and 
Tom was quick to say as much. So, without fur- 
ther delay, they made their way to what Ned called 
the pagoda but what was really not a pagoda but one 
of the three-tiered, curved-roofed “ paper burning ” 


8 4 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


temples that one sees scattered over the Chinese land 
where the streaming paper prayers, run off from the 
prayer wheel are burned as incense to the purchas- 
able Joss or God of the Chinese. 

The little gate to the temple seemed deserted as 
the boys led their ponies within the small enclosure 
and proceeded to strip off the saddle cloth from 
Ned’s griffin. A long banner staff, accidentally dis- 
carded by some hurrying bannerman lay upon the 
ground and while Ned proceeded to bind his saddle 
cloth to the staff Tom started on an exploring expe- 
dition. 

“ The place is empty, Ned,” the English lad called 
back from the doorway of the temple. “ If we can 
only force this door open we can — hello! there 
she goes. Well! of all the — ” 

“ Wow-wow-wow ! ” came the sharp bark of a 
dog, so closely at Ned’s throat that involuntarily the 
lad leaped back. 

“ It’s gone to the dogs, like so many other things 
in China,” Tom said, with the short laugh of min- 
gled surprise and contempt. Then he investigated. 

“ It’s one of those Thibetan curs,” he said; “ they 
keep ’em chained in some of these places, so I hear, 
to ward off unfriendly spirits. Well, I’m afraid we 
come under that head just now, eh, Ned. I hope he 
hasn’t roused the neighborhood. He will if we 
don’t put a stop to him. Sorry to do it, old fellow, 


A GARRISON OF TWO 


85 

but really the fate of an army depends on your keep- 
ing quiet just now, and there’s only one way to fix 
you.” 

The revolver spoke out sharp and insistently — 
once — twice — and the guardian of the temple barked 
no more. 

“ All ready, Tom,” Ned announced from his 
knees. “ I’ve got this wig-wag fixed all right. Now 
then to try it. Will you stay here and guard the 
gate — or how ? ” 

“ I fancy I’d better, Ned,” the English lad replied. 
“ Some of those recreants may be coming back and 
some one must look out for them. See here, I’m go- 
ing to barricade things, so as to be on the safe side — 
inside — and give you a chance. Phew! I have 
struck cleaner places. Tell you what, Ned, I’ve come 
to the conclusion that the god of China is the god of 
dirt, and these temples are his chief shrines, eh.” 

Ned helped his friend to close and barricade the 
outer door of the small temple enclosure, both lads 
wondering why the place was so silent and empty of 
man, for in swarming China few vacant spots are 
found. But the American had work to do, and was 
soon feeling his way up toward the beautifully 
curved roof which, gilded, tiled and decorated, sur- 
mounted the little temple. 

The way was dark and dirty, the short stone steps 
encumbered with rubbish and filth, but Ned pushed 


86 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


his way up as the light coming in through the nar- 
row slits in the wall now and then helped him on. 
With the banner staff bumping behind him and his 
pistol ready for emergencies the boy felt his way up 
from one floor to the other and when he reached 
what he supposed to be the upper story he looked 
about for some way of egress to the roof. 

At first there seemed none. But upon investiga- 
tion, Ned, with the help of a match and a swinging 
torch of prayer papers discovered what looked like 
a door or screen against the wall. He inserted the 
end of his banner pole beneath it and slowly pried it 
open. It covered a wider window than the ones be- 
low stairs, and the American cautiously thrust out 
his head. 

He looked down upon the customary view of the 
Pei-ho region — a low flat country, the muddy river 
winding over the plain, mud banks, sand hills, sor- 
ghum fields, a few trees, fences bright with climbing 
flowers, mud roofs to mud houses; behind him were 
the dim outskirts of Tien-Tsin, before him the walls 
of the beleaguered arsenal and the moving masses of 
Chinese besiegers, scarcely a half mile away. 

Cautiously Ned Pevear thrust himself through the 
opening. Then, steadying himself with his banner 
pole and thrusting his pistol into his belt he raised 
himself until he clutched the curved eaves of the 


A GARRISON OF TWO 


87 


temple and with a little spring caught the gracefully- 
turned corner ornament modelled, so say the stu- 
dents of Chinese architecture either upon the upturn- 
ing boughs of the forest tree or the Tartar tent- tops 
of by-gone times. 

Whatever the curving corner of the roof was 
modelled upon it served Ned’s purpose. For, with 
a mighty twist and jump, the athletic young Ameri- 
can swung himself free of the window sill and up 
until he had flung a leg over the curved corner. The 
next instant he stood just where he wished to be — 
alone on the temple roof, with the far stretching 
landscape below him and, in plain view, the be- 
leaguered Imperial arsenal from which streamed the 
fluttering allied flags. 

The distant sound of sniping guns and booming 
cannon came to his ears from the camp of the besieg- 
ers; then he heard below him the sound of blows 
upon the barricaded door and he knew that the care- 
less guardians of the temple had returned and were 
demanding admission. 

“Hullo! Tom’s discovered,” he said. “You’ve 
got to hustle, Ned, my son, if you want to get in 
your fine work.” 

He braced himself against the central ornament 
that topped the sloping, pagoda-like roof and recall- 
ing his lessons in signalling, learned in the service on 


88 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Luzon scouting- expeditions and Transvaal battle- 
fields he wig-wagged his improvised signal-flag in 
vigorous but amateurish fashion. 

Now this way and now that, up and down, across 
and round about he worked his saddle cloth flag. 

“ Relief-in-sight. Hold-on ! ” he spelled out, not 
quite sure that his code was correct, but very hopeful 
that it might be. And all the time he strained his 
eyes toward the distant walls of the armory topped 
with the allied flags. 

There came no answering sign or signal. Instead, 
there fell upon his ears the sound of redoubling 
blows upon the door to the temple enclosure and 
below his feet the hoarse murmur of a gathering 
throng that soon swelled into a shout. 

Ned knew now that he too had been discovered, 
and that he and Tom Dickson were beleaguered and 
besieged quite as much as was Seymour’s caged 
army within the Imperial arsenal. But still he held 
bravely to his work. Up and down, this way and 
that, he worked his signalling wig-wag, spelling 
over the same refrain of good tidings : “ Relief-in- 
sight. Hold-on ! ” 

He would scarcely trust himself to look below. 
His duty was to attract the attention of the distant 
arsenal. Oh! could he not do so? Just once, he 
said, let them see and answer me, just once, and 
then — 


A GARRISON OF TWO 


89 


Then ! — the then had come almost sooner than he 
feared. Around the enclosure leaped and danced an 
excited, shrieking, ever-growing throng. Then, 
with a ping and a spat, bullets nipped and tore the 
sloping roof ; arrows from Boxer bows sang hissing 
past him or fell with a thud at his feet. One tore 
his spattees with a rip; a bullet cut its way through 
his swaying signal-flag; another struck the canteen 
swinging at his side; another — hullo! what was 
that ? 

A bright light struck him full in the face; another 
almost blinded his eyes an instant so that he raised a 
hand to ward off the glare; a third gleamed a sec- 
ond on the long gilded staff of his signal flag; he 
threw a hasty glance at the arsenal walls; no signal 
flag fluttered out, but, with a great joy Ned Pevear 
caught the repeated flash and gleam of something 
on the sun-lit wall and the meaning of it all came to 
him at once. 

“ Hurrah! they’ve seen me,” he cried; “ they’re 
heliographing a reply.” 

He did not know what it was. He was not versed 
in heliographic talk; but he knew that his mission 
was accomplished and that his message of relief had 
been read on the armory walls. 

“ All-right ! We-are-coming. Hold-on ! ” he 
wig-wagged back. “ All-right ! We-are-com — ” 

Spat! crack! a bullet struck his gilded banner 


90 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


staff fair and square in the butt just above his hand. 
The staff swayed, split and fell to the roof; the splin- 
ters tore into his hand as the stick fell at his feet. 
But with a last desperate clutch, Ned grabbed at the 
falling staff, swung it in triumph vigorously about 
his head, and tearing off the saddle cloth, launched 
the broken staff straight at the upturned faces of 
the besiegers who howled at his feet. Then, 
sliding from the roof, he swung himself from the 
curved corner points into the open window and clat- 
tered down the darkened stone staircase, binding 
up his bleeding hand as he ran. 

“ Tom ! Tom ! ” he shouted, “ they saw me. It’s 
all right, old chap, they saw my signal at the ar- 
senal. Hooray for us ! How goes it with you ? ” 
“ Right as a trivet, dear boy/’ the cheery answer 
came up from the darkness below. “ I’m standing 
these chappies off in great shape. But I think 

they’ve been plunking you instead of me, lately. 
How are you — safe and sound ? ” 

“ Safe, but not just sound,” Ned replied as he 
dropped by his friend’s side. “ Got my hand 
smashed; but I reckon I can dig the splinters out. 
They can wait, anyhow. What’s for us to do ? ” 

“ Hold the fort, I fancy,” the English lad replied. 
“ That’s all there is to do. My hat ! we’ve got to. 
What ammunition have you got? ” 

“ A few charges left, enough for a little revolver 


A GARRISON OF TWO 


91 


sniping,” Ned replied. “ Have you fired yours 
all off?” 

“ Not if the court knows herself, lad,” said Tom. 
“ I’m holding back for emergencies. When that 
outer gate comes down then it’s our play. They’ve 
been divided, I fancy, between you on the roof and 
me down here and they don’t really know how many 
of us are in here. Can’t we try a bluff on ’em and 
make ’em think we’re an army ? ” 

“ Sure,” replied Ned, entering into the spirit of 
the thing. “ Get out into the courtyard, Tom. 
Now tramp, tramp, make all the drill noise you can.” 
Then he shouted: 

“ Attention ! Forward by files ! right dress ! 
Company — halt ! Ground arms ! ” 

Tramp! tramp! about the enclosure, the boys 
marched with as much noise as possible, and a regu- 
lar string of military commands that would have 
demoralized a regiment and upset a battalion. 

As Tom declared, they were doubtless “ all 
Greek to the Chinks,” but they had the desired effect. 

There came a cessation of the shouts and shrieks 
of the encompassing throng. The words from 
within were unintelligible to those without; but 
every nation knows the voice of command. The 
mob believed, as Ned desired, that a garrison of for- 
eign soldiers had, by some stratagem, been thrown 
into the temple enclosure. 


92 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Then Tom, forcing aside the barricade, fearlessly 
flung open the door, and with Ned beside him, 
flaunting a handkerchief from a short stick as a flag 
of truce, fearlessly faced the mob. ' 

The young Englishman’s face was stern and de- 
termined; his pistol gleamed in his hand. The yell 
of surprise that greeted him and his truce bearer, 
died suddenly away as he raised his hand. 

“ Who speaks English here ? ” he demanded. 

A chorus of Chinese jargon answered him; hands 
and heads were flung and shaken in shrill query. 
But out of it all came a sentence in pidgin English 
that both boys knew and a stout, comfortable-look- 
ing Chinaman was thrust to the front by his com- 
rades. 

“ I know the English,” so the “ pidgin ” ran. “ I 
am a comprador in the English Concession at Tien 
Tsin. What would the honorable one say?” 

“ Ah ha ! You are a comprador, eh ? ” said Tom. 
“ Well, then, my man, — you know when the Eng- 
lish say a thing they mean it. Hear me! Within 
this enclosure we have an allied force of English 
and American. We are the advance of the great 
army sent forward from Tien Tsin. Your forts at 
Taku are ours; your walls at Tien Tsin are ours; 
disperse, begone, or the allied army now on its way 
hither will wipe you from the earth. Give us peace- 
able possession here, or our great army will swallow 


A GARRISON OF TWO 


93 


you. Bid your hosts depart from the arsenal yon- 
der and let our army within its walls go back to 
Tien Tsin and we will not molest you. Refuse, and 
our riflemen within will plant the cannon on the roof 
of your temple, destroy your village and open the 
way for our army of vengeance. What say your 
people in reply ? ” 

The comprador may not have comprehended all 
of Tom’s speech, but, as Ned declared, “ he seemed 
to get its drift.” He turned about and addressed the 
mob. 

There was much tossing of spears and shrieking of 
questions and wagging of heads. Then from the 
throng came two in the odd native uniform of Chi- 
nese Imperial officers, with others whom the boys 
knew as Boxers by their fantastic rig. 

These fired at the comprador who was to act as in- 
terpreter a storm of inquiries. The portly man from 
the Concession finally confronted the “ Com- 
mander ” and his truce bearer. 

“ My honorable brothers demand of the foreign 
gentlemen ” he explained, “ that they be permitted 
to enter within the temple precincts and see for 
themselves the army you command. Then shall an 
equal number of our valiant ones be counted off, and 
here, on the roadway, will the two equal forces fight 
for the mastery. If our honorable visitors shall con- 
quer we will give you the way; if not, you shall yield 


94 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


to us, and shall bid your army from Tien Tsin retire 
from the land.” 

Tom Dickson cast at the throng, which shouted its 
approval of this proposition, a defiant and very su- 
perior smile. 

“ It is not the custom of the Europeans — and the 
Americans,” he added, “ to settle disputes thus. 
We are here for a purpose. Our emperors and 
great ones — our Yamen and councillors — demand 
' for their troops a free passage through your land of 
China to join our brothers in yonder arsenal and in 
distant Pekin. We make no terms. We simply say 
we go forward. Resist us and it will be death to 
you. Give us passage and we will not molest 
you. Retire and let the advance I here command 
garrison without molestation this building we have 
captured by our might and our great army when it 
joins me will not trouble you. But see that we are 
not disturbed now, or it will be worse for you.” 

The comprador cast open hands toward the de- 
fiant “ garrison.” 

“ It is not wise, it is not wise, O valiant young 
foreigners,” he said. “ I know your strength, but I 
know ours, too. We are as the sands of the desert 
in numbers. Be not rash.” 

“ You heard my words, most worthy comprador,” 
said Tom sternly. “ Your answer ? ” 

The answer came swiftly. For as the comprador 
announced to his brethren the “ commander’s ” ulti- 


A GARRISON OF TWO 


95 


matum, a great cry of refusal and rage burst from 
the throng. The swaying mass, pressed forward by 
those in the rear, almost overcame the conservative 
comprador who was counselling peace and conces- 
sion, and a yell that was not to be mistaken came as 
the Boxers’ refusal. 

“ In, in, worthy ones; they will not respect your 
white flag,” the comprador cried, and Tom and Ned 
had but scant time to dart back and barricade still 
more strongly the closed door to the temple en- 
closure, before the demand for attack and destruction 
rose into an impelling shout. 

Ned looked at Tom shrewdly. 

“ I reckon we’re in for it, commander,” he said. 
6C Do you think you handled that thing just right? ” 

“ Hobson’s choice, my boy,” the English lad re- 
plied. “ If we’ve got to go we can keep a stiff upper 
lip all the way, don’t you know.” 

Ned nodded in approval. He was no craven and 
could carry a bluff as boldly as any one, when occa- 
sion demanded. 

The occasion just now certainly demanded some- 
thing “ strenuous,” for with a battering of logs and 
stones against the temple entrance, the gate shook 
on its stout hinges and as the boys with a volley 
from their pistols leaped back into the temple the 
gate of the compound fell with a crash and the Box- 
ers swarmed into the enclosure. 


CHAPTER VI 


A RASH RESOLVE 

The allies braced and barricaded the door to the 
temple itself, taking advantage of the temporary sur- 
prise of the invading Boxers who, looking for an 
army, found — nothing! 

“ Ned,” said Tom as, ascending to the upper story, 
the two lads trained their loaded pistols on the crowd 
below, “ perhaps you think I’m a fool for sticking to 
my bluff as I did, but I fancy Pm all right. Listen ! 
what do you hear? ” 

Ned heard nothing, for the besiegers below broke 
into thin shrill shrieks of demand and bravado. 
But there was a lull for an instant, and then he heard 
something — the clear call of the bugle sounding in 
the distance. 

“ It’s the Cossacks ! ” he cried. “ Tom, you're a 
brick.” 

“ O, dinna ye hear the slogan ? ” cried Tom. “ I 
did, and I’d figured that the major's rough riders 
of the Steppes were due here about now. That’s why 
my lip stiffened.” 


96 


A RASH RESOLVE 


97 

“ God grant they get here before we’re smoked 
out,” cried Ned fervently. 

“ They’ve got to, lad,” replied Tom. “ To the 
roof, to the roof with you. We’ll get ’em here in 
double quick time, trust me.” 

Ned did trust him. He was beginning to have 
great faith in Tom Dickson’s “ strategy.” 

The “ strategy ” certainly worked. Scarcely had 
the lads swung themselves by the curved corners of 
the eaves up to the roof of the temple from which 
vantage ground they proceeded to “ snipe ” the be- 
siegers below than the clear notes of the cavalry 
bugle rang out again, nearer and yet nearer to them. 
Then, with a shout, the Cossack horsemen charged 
full against the Boxer leaguers and with shot and 
whip scattered them like chaff, while above, on the 
roof of the “ paper-burning temple ” the garrison of 
two hailed their deliverers with shouts and cheers of 
welcome and fired their last cartridges at the van- 
ishing besiegers. 

Then they clambered down and reported. 

“ You have done well, little brothers,” the Russian 
major said. “ Through yonder mass of pagans it 
would have been madness for you to try and force 
your way. And you have communicated with the 
Admiral Seymour? It is well. Now that he 
knows the relief is at hand he can hold out with 
more assurance. My Colonel Schivinsky should be 


9 8 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


not far behind. We will hold our advance here and 
await his coming.” 

The Cossack advance bivouacked in and about the 
captured temple, strengthening that outpost and cau- 
tiously guarding the vantage ground they were to 
hold until the main column of the relief came up. 

Ned’s first care was for his prisoner. The Rus- 
sian major had kept his promise and Captain Ullman 
had been so well cared for that he had revived suffi- 
ciently to be able to converse with his young pro- 
tector. His rough handling by the Boxers he had 
undertaken to propitiate had only temporarily dis- 
abled him and he was emphatic in his assurances to 
Ned and Tom that he was anxious to prove the faith 
that was in him. 

“ It was an unwise thing to send so small a force 
as your English admiral led to the relief of Pekin,” 
he declared ; “ it was a foolish thing to bombard the 
forts at Taku. China rouses but slowly, but when 
such moves are made by the foreigners, Mongol and 
Manchurian alike think their homeland is invaded 
and they rise to drive out the invaders. For this 
outbreak in China began not as an attack on for- 
eigners but as a rebellion of the Chinese against the 
hated Manchu dynasty; it was to be China for the 
Chinese, and the attack on the foreigners was simply 
because their presence in China — the merchants and 
the missionaries — was by favor of the ruling dy- 


A RASH RESOLVE 


99 


nasty. I know that the Boxers, who are but a section 
of the great Triad society, seek to restore the old Chi- 
nese dynasty, drive out the Manchus and foreigners 
and let the real Chinese govern themselves. Had 
your fighting men and councillors but understood 
this all the trouble and massacre at Pekin might have 
been avoided.” 

“Then it is massacre there, you think?” Ned 
queried. 

“Think? I know,” the drill captain replied. 
“ Said I not what I had heard through secret tidings 
from Pekin? It is true even now that the German 
minister, the baron von Ketteler, has been slain in 
the streets of Pekin while on his way to the yamen to 
protest against the removal of the ministers to Tien 
Tsin. If they have gone thither they have been mur- 
dered by their escort even as he was killed; if they 
have not left then they have been besieged and slain 
within their legation walls.” 

“ By heaven ! then we will avenge them,” cried 
Tom Dickson hotly. “ Do you suppose the British 
government will stand calmly by and see her minis- 
ters and subjects slaughtered. Down with these 
treacherous Chinks, say I, and cut up their worthless 
Empire. My hat! but Fll get into Pekin now if 
forty million bar the way. Eve just got to, Ned. 
What will Sir Robert Hart say, if I don’t show up 
when I promised.” 

L. of C. 


lOO 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Sir Robert Hart?” exclaimed Ned. “If the 
rest of the foreigners are killed, I reckon he is, too.” 

“ Bosh ! how could he be ? ” cried Tom. “ They’d 
as soon kill their Emperor.” 

“ Perhaps they have,” Ullman said. “ There are 
plots within plots in yonder Forbidden City.” 

“ Br-r-r ! what a place to live in,” said Ned. “ It’s 
worse than Manila. Give me a Christian land, every 
time,” he added. “ I like to know when and where 
a fellow is going to hit if I’ve got to stand on guard. 
But it’s useless to talk of your getting through to 
Pekin, Tom. How are you going to do that, with 
all North China up in arms? You’re a bright young 
chap, my lad, but your strategy won’t avail you 
there.” 

“ Perhaps mine could,” the German said quietly. 

“Yours!” exclaimed both the lads in chorus. 
“ What do you mean, Cap’n ? ” 

“ Any more deaf-mute business ? ” demanded 
Tom. “ Because if that’s in your mind I’m afraid 
it won’t work. We’d be done for before we started.” 

“ Will my young friends let me think out a 
plan ? ” Captain Ullman queried. “ I must do some- 
thing. I am looked on with distrust and suspicion 
here and in the allied camp. But I’m true; and if 
my English friend will believe in me I’ll promise to 
get him through to Pekin without harm or loss.” 


A RASH RESOLVE 


IOI 


Ned shook his head judicially while Tom fingered 
his chin skeptically. 

“ I don’t see how, Cap’n,” was Ned’s comment. 
“ But wait until Seymour’s relieved. Then we’ll 
talk about it.” 

Seymour’s relief was not far distant. That very 
day the main column of the allied re-enforcements, 
two thousand strong, joined the advance at the em- 
battled temple and early next morning the struggle 
for the relief began. 

It was anything but “ blue Monday ” to Admiral 
Seymour and his beleaguered garrison when the 
allied flags were soon charging to his rescue. Two 
hundred and more of his crippled force lay sorely 
wounded within the captured arsenal ; sixty-two had 
fallen in the continual fighting with the Boxer hosts. 
But the remnant sprang to their work with a cheer 
as the relief came on; the captured cannon on the 
wall boomed out in a shotted salute that hailed the 
re-enforcements and ploughed into the besiegers. 
Then the gates of the arsenal were flung open and as 
the two thousand allies from Tien Tsin drove the 
Boxer hosts before them, the men of eight nations, 
cooped up in the arsenal they had held so valiantly 
against tremendous odds, streamed out in final sortie 
against the demoralized Chinese and sent them fly- 
ing from the field. 


102 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Then, sick and wounded, well and weak, greeted 
with smiles and cheers and hand clasps their brother 
allies who had come to their relief and that very day 
rescuers and rescued moved back to safety within the 
defences of Tien Tsin. 

But safety there soon became a matter of uncer- 
tainty. Infuriated by the escape of Seymour, en- 
raged by the presence of Europeans in Tien Tsin and 
roused to fury by the stream of foreign invasion that 
came into the muddy Pei-ho at Taku and landed the 
allied hosts for the degradation of China, the Im- 
perial troops and the Boxers joined forces to repel 
the invaders and poured their masses of disciplined 
and undisciplined fighting men into the field of war, 
until it was estimated that at least sixty thousand 
Imperial soldiers and an uncounted host of Boxers 
had gathered for the defence of Pekin while fully 
twenty thousand soldiers and as many “ Boxers ” 
crowded after the retreating “ relievers ” to the in- 
vestment of Tien Tsin. 

“ You’ll need all the re-enforcements you can get 
to face an aroused China,” Captain Ullman declared, 
as he sat in quarters with the boys; “ I know of what 
I am talking, my dear friends, for I have drilled 
these Chinks, as you call them, and I can tell you 
their number and their armament are not to be de- 
spised by the generals of the Powers. A half mil- 
lion can rally for the defence of Pekin.” 


A RASH RESOLVE 


103 


“ A mob, though,” declared Tom. 

“Mob? Not so, not so,” the German replied. 
“ Some of them — perhaps most of them — three- 
fourths we will say — are poorly drilled, poorly 
armed and not to be depended upon, but the rest — a 
hundred and fifty thousand, at least, have been 
drilled into excellence by drill masters like myself; 
while as to their armament — look you, I know what 
they have for that disciplined force: two hundred 
and twenty Cruesot guns, eighteen Krupps and one 
hundred and fifty Maxims. This I know, for I have 
checked them off as they came to us from the Ger- 
man gun making firms in Carlowitz.” 

“ German drill masters and German guns ! ” ex^ 
claimed Ned. “ And now turned against civiliza- 
tion? Say, I shouldn’t think you Germans would 
feel easy in your minds.” 

“ And why not, friend,” the captain replied. “We 
must live, we soldiers and tradesmen, and the China- 
man is a good paymaster. Business is business, as 
you would say in America.” 

“ Well, our business is to get through to Pekin — 
or mine is,” declared Tom impatiently. “And how 
am I going to get through that howling mob of 
Chinamen and those German guns that the captain 
tells of. I’ve just got to. Those are my orders.” 

“ I had a plan, you know,” the German observed. 

“ I know ; so you said ; what is it ? Out with it. 


104 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


I’m just eating my heart out, don’t you know,” said 
Tom, “ mewed up here in this beastly Tien Tsin 
while Sir Robert Hart expects me at Pekin, and our 
legation there is in danger. What’s your plan, 
Cap’n? ” 

The German paused an instant. Then he pro- 
ceeded slowly : 

“ Mine English friend, Herr Tom,” he said, 
“ speaks the Chinese 1 — well, as you say, after a fash- 
ion, as one who has learned it lightly ; I speak it — as 
better, say you? Yes, so I think. See now. We 
become Chinese — in dress, in speech, in action. The 
Herr Tom, he is, — well, of the southern provinces, 
and his accent is not to be understood easily by these 
North China men. I am his comrade from the mid- 
dle section. I speak it better. We go to be of 
service to our brothers the Boxers at Pekin. Hein! 
You trust the rest to me. We enter the Forbidden 
City unforbidden. Shall it be so?” 

Tom’s love of adventure caught at the scheme at 
once; so indeed did Ned’s; but he was inclined to be 
skeptical. 

“ Sounds fine,” he said, “ but it’s awfully risky. 
Why, man, you’d never get through alive. And 
where is the use of trying. But — see here — I’m not 
going to lose sight of you, Tom Dickson. If you 
go, so do I.” 


A RASH RESOLVE 


105 

Tom grasped his friend’s hand. But Captain 
Ullman raised a protesting finger. 

“But why?” he said. “ Look you here, my 
friend, my protector. You are needed here; you are 
pledged here; you are of the sea-soldiers — the ma- 
rines, and cannot go. But as for us — Herr Tom 
and me — what are we? Not wanted here. He is 
of the civilians, without rank or duty, in the allied 
forces. And I — I, as you know, am without credit 
here, without friends, save only you. My record is 
questioned. I am not understood. I am half pris- 
oner, holding my parole only at your pleasure. If 
I go I relieve you. I disembarrass you. It is better 
so; it is better for us both — for us all. Say I not 
truly, Herr Tom? ” 

Tom Dickson nodded. 

“ Right you are, Captain Ullman,” he said. 
“ I’m your man. Make me into a Chink as soon as 
you please. I trust you. I am for Pekin.” 

As for Ned he was but half convinced. 

“ It sounds all right, Cap’n,” he admitted. “ You 
lay it out well. And, as for yourself, I don’t know 
but you are right. But Tom mustn’t go. He may 
be killed.” 

“ Well, it will be my funeral, old man, and not 
yours,” the English boy replied with a laugh. 
“ And who made you my keeper, I’d like to know? 


106 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

As it looks to me you’ve got all you can do in this 
affair to watch out for number one. As for me — 
well, it won’t be my first masquerade party. Didn’t I 
tell you how I sneaked it half way across the Atlantic 
on Cervera’s squadron with Don Martin, dressed half 
the time in the togs of a Spanish jackie? You know 
how I got through all right. What man has done 
man may do again, don’t you know.” 

“ He can try, I know. But, hanged if I like to 
have him,” said Ned grudgingly. 

There was much talk pro and con , but Ned found 
himself so completely in the minority and recognized 
so fully that Tom’s will was unalterably bent upon 
the hazardous enterprise that, finally, he made a 
virtue of necessity and concluded to help rather than 
hinder the scheme. 

“ You may run the hundred-mile gauntlet from 
here to Pekin, my bully Boxer,” he said to Tom, 
“ but how in the dickens you’re going to get inside 
the city and how you’re going to step into the lega- 
tion compound, is more than I can fathom.” 

“ I fear me, my friend,” Captain Ullman said, 
“ that there is no legation compound left, or lega- 
tioners either, if all the reports I hear are true. We 
shall simply remain Chinese until we have learned 
the truth and put ourselves in condition to report 
facts. I shall, myself, scarce dare to announce my- 
self as German even if we may find Germans in Pe- 


A RASH RESOLVE 


107 


kin, but I have a good Dutch friend there, Mynheer 
V erbockhoven — ” 

Ned sprang to his feet, his eyes filled with sur- 
prise and inquiry. 

“Who? Verbockhoven? Not of Manila?” he 
demanded. 

Ullman looked at the lad curiously. 

“ Of Manila? Surely, yes/’ he replied. “ And do 
you perhaps know the worthy Dutchman ? ” 

“Know him?” cried Ned. “Well, I should 
smile ! Know him — say, has he a daughter ? ” 

“ The yungvrouw Lizbet ? Certain,” the Ger- 
man replied. 

“ And they, too, are shut up in Pekin? Say, Tom 
Dickson,” exclaimed the American lad, “ you get 
right out of those Chinese togs and let me get into 
’em. If the Verbockhovens are in danger in Pekin 
— especially the yungvrouw Lizbet — I’m going 
there instanter, if all the Boxers that ever boxed 
stand in my path with all their Righteous Fists un- 
righteously doubled. The Verbockhovens? Why, 
see here! they nursed me into strength when I lay 
wounded in Manila; I learned enough Dutch from 
the yungvrouw Lizbet to carry me through the 
Transvaal campaign, and they were my very good 
friends and helpers, I can tell you. If you think I’m 
going to desert them now, when they’re in danger — 
why, you don’t know Ned Pevear, that’s all. Come 


108 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

on, fix me up too, Cap’n. I’ll be Ling Ching Foo or 
Li Hung Chang or any old Chinaman you can make 
me, but I’m with you, boys. It’s ‘ on to Pekin ! ’ I 
say — and the on-er the better.” 

The lad’s outburst and sudden determination held 
his companions speechless with surprise an instant. 
Then, recovering voice, they united in protest and 
dissuasion. 

“ You can’t, Ned. How can you?” cried Tom. 
“ You’re on duty here, and — ” 

“ On duty ? I’m semi-attached as a volunteer 
only,” replied Ned. “ I reckon I can be semi-de- 
tached if I want to. It’s no use, I tell you. I’m 
going.” 

“ But the language, the disguise, the actions ? ” 
exclaimed the German. “ Ah, my friend, believe 
me, it is unwisdom ; it is foolishness ; it may be your 
death — and ours.” 

“ Oh, I’ll get along somehow ; don’t you worry 
about me,” said optimistic Ned. “ I reckon I’ve 
gone through enough with Filipinos and Boers and 
all that to be able to pull the wool over the eyes of 
these yellow-faced sons of the dragon. Besides, do 
you think I’m going to stay here and sit mum when 
pretty Lizbet Verbockhoven is in danger in Pekin? 
That’s not my sort, I tell you. I’ll save her if it 
costs my life.” 

“ The talk is fine, it is brave, it is American,” Cap- 


A RASH RESOLVE 


109 

tain Ullman exclaimed; “ but it is foolhardy; it is 
unwise. How then, my friend, can you save the 
young girl there in Pekin? If not already massa- 
cred with the rest — ” 

“ But who says they are massacred? ” cried Ned? 
“ And who believes it ? I don’t. I wouldn’t believe 
one of these slant-eyed runners from up the river 
any more than I would a Shanghai despatch — and 
that’s saying a good deal. And you can’t tell me 
that five hundred allied blue jackets, with a lot of 
^ good fighting blood that must be in those legations, 
can’t stand off all the yellow Chinks that ever 
banged a gong or shook a spear.” 

“ That’s all right, Ned. I hope so, too,” said 
Tom Dickson. “ But, hang it ! those Chinks are 
there, and they’re making things pretty lively for 
our folks, don’t you know. Why, Sir Robert Hart’s 
last word down the river was — and he’s as close to 
the Chinamen as any foreigner can be — ‘ The for- 
eign colony is besieged in the Legations. Situation 
desperate. Come with all speed.’ I know that, for 
I’ve got a copy of the despatch. Now Sir Robert is 
my chief. That despatch is a command for me; so 
I’m going in, whatever comes of it. And with all 
speed. But, with you, it’s different. Your place is 
here. We’ll try to get in to the legations with the 
latest word and you can just fight your way in with 
the relief — like a white man.” 


no 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Ach, so! Herr Tom is correct, my friend,” 
said the German. “ And, believe me, to fight your 
way in is to give you work in plenty. Hear me. I 
know this is so. Prince Tuan and his fighters — 
Boxers and Imperial troops — are crowding upon 
Tien Tsin here to keep you all from Pekin. It will 
not be a pleasure walk for you, nor the work of one 
day, this relief. Fortunate will you be, my friend, 
if you are not hemmed in here at Tien Tsin and 
forced to fight for your very lives, without even 
thinking of Pekin.” 

“ And there you have it! ” cried Ned. “ Do you 
suppose I’m going to stay cooped up here in this 
mud hole of a town, when I can cut it and sneak into 
Pekin with you chaps. I’m going to try it, and that’s 
all there is about it.” 

It was useless to combat Ned Pevear when once 
his mind was made up. His friends soon learned 
that fact. So they, at last, unwillingly gave in to 
his importunity and prepared for the “ masquerade 
march ” into Pekin. 

Thus it came to pass that, early next morning, 
three Chinamen — an interpreter, a mandarin and a 
coolie, otherwise Tom Dickson, Captain Ullman and 
Ned Pevear — stole out of the foreign concession at 
Tien Tsin and skirting the walls of the native city, 
mingled with the ever-increasing force of the Chi- 
nese besiegers and were soon poling up the muddy 


A RASH RESOLVE m 

and winding Pei-ho in a native river boat manned 
by coolies. 

But scarcely ten miles of the up-river trip through 
that Holland-like country of mud and water had 
been made when the boat came to a sudden stop. 
An edict had gone forth from some high official to 
confiscate all river boats, heading up-stream, for use 
as transports down to Tien Tsin, and not all the 
protests, pleas or bribery of the supposed Mandarin 
were of the slightest avail. The three passengers 
were forthwith dragged out by the Imperial river 
guard and their boat, filled up with troops and a 
modern field gun, turned about for the downward 
voyage. 

Ullman persistently protested in his best Chinese ; 
Tom was diplomatically silent; but Ned, enraged at 
this summary procedure and careless of conse- 
quences, expressed his opinion in vigorous Ameri- 
can. 

“ Well, of all the high-handed ways of doing 
things, that takes the cake/’ he declared. “ Great 
Scott! Cap’n, are you going to let these almond- 
eyed good for nothings play that sort of a game — ” 

The American lad got no further. Not even 
Ullman’s stern Chinese rebuke of his coolie, nor 
Tom Dickson’s vigorous punches to compel silence 
had stopped Ned’s torrent of indignation. The 
sound of his voice and the nature of his speech 


1 1 2 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


aroused first the suspicions and then the anger of the 
water guard. 

“ A foreign devil — an invader in disguise ! — kill, 
kill, kill ! ” they shrieked in excited Chinese, and be- 
fore the mandarin or the interpreter could interfere 
— before even they really knew what was happening, 
the protesting “ coolie ” was dragged from their 
side and whisked out of reach so swiftly and silently 
that neither Tom Dickson nor Captain Ullman 
knew of his whereabouts or his fate. Indeed, only 
by the shrewdest management, could Ullman extri- 
cate himself and his comrade from the suspicions 
and charges of the hostile throng about them, and 
when, at last, they had taken themselves off and 
quietly joined themselves to a camel transport train 
bound Pekin-ward, the fate of Ned Pevear was a 
mystery. He had vanished completely from their 
vision. 

“ Poor Ned,” said Tom, in a whisper to his com- 
rade, “ I’m afraid he’s done for.” 

The German gave the least bit of a shrug of the 
shoulders. 

“ What would you?” said he. “ My young 
friend was so foolish — ach — so foolish. He fares 
best here who says nothing. Look you; he is lost.” 


CHAPTER VII 


A CIVIL OFFICIAL OF THE THIRD DEGREE ” 

That was exactly Ned Pevear ’s conclusion, as 
collared and hustled away from his travelling com- 
panions, he was unceremoniously flung back into the 
very boat on which he had started from Tien Tsin 
and floated back towards his starting point — a pris- 
oner. 

“ It’s all up with me, I reckon,” he said to himself. 
“ I’m a gone coon. Why don’t they finish me off at 
once. Oh, Ned Pevear! you’re a nice party for this 
sort of a picnic. Haven’t you learned yet to hold 
your tongue? If ever I get out of this alive I’ll know 
something, I reckon. But I won’t get out. I’m in 
for it now — slow torture perhaps; but, by George! 
these Chinks shall see that an American dies game.” 

Just how this American was to die he could not 
discover. The Chinese soldiers on the boat were non- 
committal, though had they been voluble to excess 
it would have told Ned Pevear nothing; for Chinese 
was, as you know, a sealed book to him. 

So he lay, bound and silent under the hood of the 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


114 

river boat, until at last it floated within sight of the 
square, mud walls of Tien Tsin and under the bridge 
that spanned the river, within the native city, then 
held by the Chinese. There it came at last to a stop 
and the prisoner was dragged to his feet and flung 
ashore near the big pagoda by the South Gate of 
Tien Tsin. 

Up the main street of the filthy native city, where 
it runs from the South Gate to the North, the “ for- 
eign devil ” disguised as a coolie, was marched and 
then turning aside he was halted at last before the 
open house that, as he knew from the seated official 
inside and the throng that filled the enclosure, must 
be the Yamen or court house of what he called 
“ some high muck-a-muck.” Indeed, it was that of 
the viceroy himself. 

There were questions and answers as Ned stood 
before the viceroy. Then that official looked sternly 
at the lad. 

“ Tsung yu Pih king lae leaou? ” he inquired. 

Ned held his head high. 

“ You’ll have to talk in American, sir,” he said. 
“ I don’t know your lingo.” 

The viceroy looked around imperiously and lifted 
his voice in querulous questioning. 

There was a pause before reply ; then one stepped 
from the throng in the Yamen and “ kotowed ” be- 
fore the viceroy. 


OFFICIAL OF THE THIRD DEGREE 115 

With a look of relief the official bade the inter- 
preter question the youth. 

“ O, hateful foreigner ! the viceroy asks/’ said the 
interpreter, facing the American, “ why do you ap- 
pear in the clothes of a coolie when you are no 
coolie but a vile foreigner. Do you come from 
Pekin? Whither bound and why? Answer and” 
1 — here the questioner’s voice dropped almost to a 
whisper — “ watch me well, O friend, if your life is 
valuable.” 

Ned almost started at the sudden change in tone. 
But he recalled his inclination to question and replied 
boldly, “ I come from America. I would join my 
friends in Pekin. I could not go in foreign dress — 
so I became a coolie — Tell me what to do, friend,” he 
added, in the same even tone. 

The interpreter gave the lad’s answer to the vice- 
roy. 

“ A spy?” so the interpreter translated the vice- 
roy’s decision. “ A foreign spy ? Give him the 
cangue until we may decide on a fitting death.” 

“ The cangue ! What ? stick my head through 
a board and make a holy show of myself for you 
heathen Chinees? Not if I know myself. Let me 
loose, or I’ll brain some of you,” and the angry 
American, enraged at the thought of being thus dis- 
graced and humiliated by “ being made a raree 
show,” struck vigorously out to the right and left, 


n6 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

tumbling over guards and spectators and sadly 
scandalizing the dignity of the viceroy’s Yamen. 

The interpreter clutched the boy by the arm. 

“ Hei ! foolish one. Quiet and — trust me, or you 
die,” he whispered, and then he explained to the 
honorable court that the prisoner had been made 
suddenly insane by his perils and privations. 

“ It is well, or I would have decreed the ling ch’i 
at once,” the viceroy said. “ A lunatic, you say? 
Possessed of the devil — a foreign devil, too? Then 
let him have the cangue as I decreed, until the devil 
is driven out. Then, when his mind is right again 
will we consider the death he must die.” 

There seemed no escape for poor Ned. Forth- 
with he was led from the Yamen by a guard of sol- 
diers and handed over to the executioner’s attend- 
ants in the open space back of the great guard hall 
of Tien Tsin for the punishment of the cangue. 
But, when he looked around for one friendly face, 
his heart gave a leap, for there among the “ torture 
men ” he recognized the face of the interpreter. 

“ Start not, resist not, O friend,” whispered the 
man as, with the others, he laid heavy hands on Ned 
Pevear, apparently to help the executioners. “ Trust 
me.” 

The horrid wooden frame, simple but severe, 
which is known as the cangue or cage — the wooden 



Ned struck out to the right and left. 



















I 










































OFFICIAL OF THE THIRD DEGREE 117 

collar, really — was unlocked and Ned’s head was 
thrust into the opening. 

“ Come now, this isn’t as bad as it might be,” said 
Ned to himself. “ I thought it hurt terribly. But 
what sort of a guy must I look like waddling around 
with this fifty-pound block of wood around my neck. 
Ah! ee! but it does cut. Great Scott! I wonder 
how long I’ve got to wear this necktie.” 

The “ necktie,” as Ned called the well-known 
Chinese torture collar or cangue, was simply a large 
wooden frame, with a collar in the middle. Locked 
around the victim’s neck it did not hurt at first, 
though it was a most clumsy inconvenience. But 
Ned soon found that the collar of the cangue rested 
directly on the muscles of the neck and the bones of 
the shoulder and that it could neither be shifted nor 
lightened of its grinding pressure by any movement 
of the head or any action of the hands. Besides, 
he discovered that the collar had a sharp rim under- 
neath which cut into his neck whenever he dropped 
his head. 

The assistants turned him loose and he tried to 
walk about for relief and change. But, as he de- 
clared, he could only “ waddle ” with that fifty- 
pound weight about his neck, and the muscles grew 
more and more tense and painful as he endeavored, 
vainly, to shift the weight. 


n8 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

“ Here, around the corner, into the shadow, 
friend; walk there from the throng,” whispered the 
interpreter. “ Bear up and wince not. I will try 
and relieve you.” 

• Ned “ braced up ” and moved away from the 
hooting crowd of spectators, to whom, indeed, the 
punishment of the cangue was no novelty and they 
did not follow him, looking rather for still more 
interesting and novel tortures. For the Chinaman 
makes a fad of torturing and, that very day, forty 
native Christians were to be “ treated ” to those re- 
finements of Chinese cruelty — impalement, crucifix- 
ion and the dreadful ling ch’i. 

Only the interpreter and his attendant coolie fol- 
lowed Ned at a slight distance until turning a cor- 
ner beyond the guard-room building he rested in a 
shaded angle of the wall. Instantly the interpreter 
was beside him. A key was thrust into the lock of 
the collar and, relieved of the tension and torment, 
Ned, for one instant dropped to the ground. 

“ Up, up, it is no time for weakness,” the lad’s de- 
liverer said. “ See ! you are my coolie, my China 
boy. Look! here are you — and now — close to me 
and speak not.” 

It was mighty hard for Ned not to speak, for as he 
rose to his feet and steadied himself against the wall 
he saw that the cangue was occupied by the coolie of 


OFFICIAL OF THE THIRD DEGREE 119 

the interpreter. The man had simply taken his 
place. 

“ O ! say ! see here ” — the lad began in expostula- 
tion. 

The interpreter laid a hand over the American’s 
mouth. 

“ Say nothing, or you lose your life,” whispered 
the Chinaman. “ Now keep close at my heels, head 
down and say nothing. Your life depends upon it.” 

Rebelling at the substitution which gave to an- 
other unmerited agony, but relieved to feel himself 
free from the weight and pain, Ned Pevear followed 
his slowly moving “ master ” out from the shadow 
of the guard house walls and up the main street to 
where, an oasis in the filth of Tien Tsin, a tiny, clean 
kept warehouse hung over the river. 

Into this his conductor led him. Once within the 
security of its darkened interior, the lad was told 
to lie down on a matting couch and the interpreter 
said : “ Rest quietly, my friend, till the strength 
comes back. But do you not know me? And how 
came you in this dangerous disguise in these times 
of death ? ” 

“ Do I know you?” murmured Ned, weary but 
wondering. “ Why, no, I do not.” 

“You remember not the Omaha merchant who 
fished you from the Pei-ho, and then lost you by 


120 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


your foolish leap into the water? I am he,” the 
Chinaman said. “ I could not see you die, even for 
this foolishness. So you are here. But — you would 
have gone to Pekin, and disguised in what is no 
disguise? Truly, brother, you are even as I told the 
viceroy — insane, lunatic, crazy. What would you 
in Pekin ? ” 

“ Save my countrymen — save my friends — save 
one friend — the yungvrouw Verbockhoven,” replied 
Ned. 

The Chinaman laughed a mirthless laugh. 

“Ah, you Americans!” he said. “You are but 
children, and like children you are foolish even in 
your frankness. But what said our great Confucius? 
* Do not be ashamed of mistakes and thus make them 
crimes/ You are one great mistake in your foolish- 
ness; but you glory in it and it is thus no crime. 
Therefore, I would help you. Lie you here and sleep 
and rest until I come again to you. I will get you 
to your own.” 

“ To Pekin? ” queried Ned. 

“ Not so, youth. Pekin ! It is death to you in 
Pekin. Would you go again into the dragon’s 
jaws? ” 

“But, are our people all dead in Pekin?” de- 
manded Ned. 

“ Who knows,” the merchant replied. “ A good 
rat will not injure the grain near its own hole, say 


OFFICIAL OF THE THIRD DEGREE 121 


our sages. Why should our people bring ruin on 
their nation by destroying those whom they are 
pledged to protect? But even the cangue, as you 
know* will not cure a lunatic. Even you, foolish 
one, would still make your way to Pekin.” 

“ I must/’ Ned replied. 

“ Then go with your armies and not with ours ; 
it is safer/’ the wise merchant advised. “ Lie close 
here until I get you back to the invaders in the for- 
eign concession. And once there, stay by your own 
standards. The dragon can twist himself in many 
a way and his sting is fatal.” 

For a day Ned lay concealed in the warehouse of 
the Omaha Chinaman — the man who would see his 
homeland Americanized and whose friendliness had 
saved Ned Pevear’s life. Then, as the morning of 
the second day broke, the Omaha merchant appeared 
at the warehouse. 

“ Arise, friend,” he said. “ We will make the 
effort. Stay, let me still keep you Chinese,” and he 
readjusted the head piece and queue that had been 
a part of Ned’s coolie disguise. “ Now, a touch 
more of stain and slant; that is good. And these 
robes; so! Now are you a civil official of the third 
degree — an envoy from the Yamen of the viceroy 
to the allied commanders.” 

Wondering, Ned submitted to the new disguise 
of silken skirt and great sleeved coat, skull cap and 


122 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


embroidered square — “ kindergarten pattern,” he 
called it, — and silent, save for a word of thanks, fol- 
lowed the merchant from the warehouse. 

Four Yamen runners, four bearers with a .sedan 
chair, and two coolies with a wheelbarrow waited 
without. Ned was certain that one of the coolies 
was the man who acted as his substitute in the 
cangue. He clutched the merchant’s arm. 

“ Is it?” he said, nodding toward the coolie; 
“ and how?” 

The Omaha merchant bent low as before a high 
official. 

“ It is,” he answered in a whisper. “ Cash ac- 
complishes much ; as, behold ! ” and with another 
“ kotow ” he waved a hand toward the sedan. 

The curtains parted and Ned with as much dig- 
nity as he could command stepped into the sedan 
chair. The bearers lifted the poles; the merchant 
Seated himself in the wheelbarrow and with two 
runners going before the sedan and two following 
the barrow, the strange procession went through the 
narrow, filthy streets of the native city, out through 
the south gate and on toward the foreign city, where 
the flags of the allies topped the mud defences. 

The advance of the Yamen runners waved the 
white flag of truce; to Ned’s surprise no one stayed 
or questioned them; then, before an outpost of the 
allies the procession stopped. 


OFFICIAL OF THE THIRD DEGREE 123 

“ Halte! halte la! Qui vive ?” came the challenge 
of the advancing sentry. 

“ Ah, ha! struck a French picket, have we? ” Ned 
said to himself, within the security of his sedan. But 
he made no answer. He did not wish to upset the 
plans of his deliverer. 

Again the challenge came. 

“ Qui vive? ” 

“I do not know the French — is it French? 
Answer him, brother. We must get within the lines. ,, 

Ned summoned up his best recollections of an im- 
perfect French, and leaning 'from the sedan re- 
sponded to the sentry’s challenge, spoken for the 
third time. 

" Ami! ” he said. " Se faire annoncu! Tell ’em 
we want to see ’em, right off,” he added^ with the 
regulation Anglo-Saxon idea that you must always 
explain your French in English. 

The sentry stood in perplexity, his head on one 
side, his rifle half raised. Then he shouted to his 
comrades. 

" Hola! vite ! ” he cried. 

The other sentries joined him and, as they jab- 
bered in a strange mixture of French and something 
else, Ned, noting their dark skins, saw that the out- 
post was from one of the French colonial contin- 
gents — Annam or Tonquin or some such Asiatic 
French. 


124 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


In despair he fell back on his English. 

“ Send your commandant here, boys ; some one 
who can talk English, won’t you,” he said, “ we’re 
refugees from — ” 

But he got no further. The French colonials, like 
others of the allied forces, had no faith in Chinese 
flags of truce nor in Chinamen who talked in other 
tongues. With a yell they swooped down upon their 
visitors; threw over the flag bearers, scattered the 
coolies, tumbled out the presumably Chinese occu- 
pants of sedan and wheelbarrow, and tying their per- 
sons together by their pig-tails, marched them off to 
headquarters, protesting and perplexed. 

This was, to Ned, the crowning indignity. He 
was not accustomed to being treated in so contemp- 
tuous a manner or to suffer, in silence, so outrageous 
an invasion of his independence as an American. 
He fumed and sputtered and protested and but for 
the restraining actions of his companion and “ bond- 
fellow,” the Omaha merchant, he would have pulled 
himself free from the “ bonds.” 

“ Be you quiet, my brother,” thw v_,pinaman said. 
“ It is but for an instant. You are among your own 
again. We shall both be freed when once we are 
delivered from these savages.” 

The “ savages ” of civilization — the swarthy 
French colonials — greatly enjoyed the sport, and 
Ned’s vigorous English gave them as great delight 


OFFICIAL OF THE THIRD DEGREE 125 

as his ridiculous position, lashed to another “ Chi- 
nese spy ;” — “ Espion Chinois!” they repeated. 

At the guard house on Railway street — the Rue 
de Chemin de Fer — near the foreign concessions, the 
prisoners were halted until the officer of the guard 
should be summoned. But even as this important and 
dapper Frenchman, bronzed and bedizened as a cap- 
tain of colonials, came from the guard house, Ned 
gave a cry of delight and a leap of recognition, as he 
saw coming through a break in the round house, on 
the railroad near by, the Admiral Sir Edward Sey- 
mour, and his American friend, Captain Marshall, 
of the marines. 

Alas! that leap did the business for poor Ned. 
For as he sprang from the side of his unprepared and 
unwatching “ yoke-fellow ” with the glad cry “ Oh, 
Admiral ! Say ! Cap’n Marshall ! ” the fastenings 
that held his false “ scalp ” and Chinese queue 
parted with a snap and the British Admiral and the 
American captain, with the two young English aids 
of the admii ' saw in surprise a Chinese “ civil of- 
ficial of the third degree ” with the tousled head of 
an American lad surmounting a face that might be 
anything but Oriental. 

French colonials, English admiral, American ma- 
rines and Chinese' Attendants broke into a roar of 
laughter at this impromptu uncovering of the mas- 
querader. 


126 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Then the admiral demanded : “ What have we 
here? What is it? And who calls us in English? ” 

Shamefaced and mortified at his highly undigni- 
fied appearance, but delighted at this encounter, Ned 
stopped before the English and American officers 
and saluted in soldierly fashion. 

“ Don’t you remember me, Admiral ? Why ! you 
do, Cap’n Marshall,” he cried. “ I’m Ned Pevear 
of the American marines, volunteer aid and scout, 
you know, on your march to Pekin.” 

“ Why, to be sure,” Captain Marshall said, com- 
ing forward with both hands extended. “ Great 
Scott ! Ned. I’d never have known you in that rig. 
What under the sun have you been up to ? Leading 
the Boxers ? ” 

“ Is this a time for larking and monkey shines, 
sir?” demanded Sir Edward Seymour, just a bit 
sternly ; “ with our situation critical, our very ex- 
istence endangered, is this a time for midshipman 
pranks ? ” 

“ Your pardon, exalted one,” the Omaha mer- 
chant said, as he “ kotowed ” before the English ad- 
miral — Ned’s false scalp and pig- tail still dangling 
from his own queue. “ The young American’s dress 
is of my doing. It was to help him escape from the 
rebels.” 

“ Escape ! ” cried Captain Marshall. “ Where 
from? What have you been up to, Ned Pevear? ” 


OFFICIAL OF THE THIRD DEGREE 127 

“ Why, sir ,” Ned confessed; “I tried to get 
through to Pekin and I — ” 

“ Got through with trying sooner than you ex- 
pected, eh? ” laughed the captain. “ With your per- 
mission, Admiral, I will see to my young friend 
It was either a lark or a self-imposed mission, but 
he meant no harm, I am sure. May I assume charge 
of him ” 

The admiral nodded, but the French captain of 
colonials interfered. 

“ Pardon ! ” he said “ but ze prisonnier iz of me. 
My garcons de piquet zey make ze capture, eh ? ” 

“ Believe me, M’sieur, it was no capture,” Ned 
explained. a We came in the lines under the white 
flag, and your men disregarded it — and — treated us 
scandalously/’ 

He gave a look at his dangling queue, and laughed 
in spite of himself. 

“ Our men on picket have little respect for the 
white flag in the hands of yonder barbarians,” the 
admiral replied. “ You remember yourself, per- 
haps, the treachery at the North Arsenal, do you 
not? You suffered from that, I believe.” 

“ Yes, sir, but—” 

Ned got no further in his reply, for just then, 
bang, smash! came a Chinese shell from the newly 
mounted guns beyond the railway bridge ; it tore up 
a trench at the very feet of the admiral ; while, fol- 


12 8 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


lowing it quickly, crack, crang ! another shell tore a 
ragged hole in the round house itself and the dis- 
cussion as to the possession of prisoners came to a 
sudden termination. 

“ The Chinese lookout on the pagoda seems to 
have found the range, gentlemen,” said the admiral ; 
“ they’ll begin to snipe us with rifle fire too, if we 
crowd around here long. With your permission, 
Captain,” he said to the French colonial officer, “ I 
will turn over these prisoners, suspects — whatever 
they may be — to Captain Marshall of the American 
marines. They seem to be within his province, and 
we can safely trust them to him. This is hardly a 
safe place for a conference. Now, gentlemen,” to 
his aids, “ let us inspect the Japanese pony batteries 
by the west wall; they are to try a sortie there 
presently. Captain Marshall, you can examine these 
men and report either to me or to your Captain Mc- 
Calla.” 

He saluted the French colonial, saluted the 
American officer, cast one shrewd and humorous 
look at Ned, the semi-mandarin, and through the 
new breach in the ruined round house, withdrew 
with his aids and his escort of British marines to 
the West gate. Captain Marshall and the French 
colonial officer exchanged courteous salutes, and 
then the little bunch of “ prisoners ” — runners, cool- 
ies and all — under guard of the swarthy French 


OFFICIAL OF THE THIRD DEGREE 129 

colonials led by an American captain of marines, 
passed through the earthworks that defended the 
foreign settlement, and reported at Captain Mc- 
Calla’s quarters at the American consulate. 

On his way thither Ned Pevear explained the sit- 
uation to his friend, Captain Marshall, and received 
a sharp lecture from the captain on the military 
crime of acting without orders. 

“ Your friend, the English lad, Ned, was a civil- 
ian, under orders for Pekin, and not responsible to 
the military arm,” he said. “ If he decided to act on 
his own judgment — rash though his judgment was 
— that was his lookout, and the risk was his alone. 
But you were attached to our marine service; your 
orders were explicit, even though you were acting 
as volunteer aid and scout, and to do as you pleased 
was an evident and undeniable error. Our thanks 
are due, not to you, but to your Chinese deliverer 
here, for getting you out of this scrape. I thank 
him sincerely and will see that our commander does. 
As for you, Ned, I am forced to refer your breach of 
discipline to Captain McCalla. His decision we 
must abide by. I should be sorry to see you shot for 
desertion, my lad, but ‘ discipline must be main- 
tained/ you know.” And with these unpromising 
words Marshall went in to report to his chief, the 
captain of the Newark. 


CHAPTER VIII 

OVER WALL AND MOAT 

Ned had really little to fear beyond Captain Mar- 
shall’s “ raking over the coals,” and the grim pleas- 
antry that suggested a drum-head court martial and 
a deserter’s fate. 

His anxiety, indeed, was of short duration; for 
the captain returned speedily from his conference 
with Captain McCalla. 

“ Do as you see fit, Marshall,” Captain McCalla 
said. The brave commander of the Newark was 
still half invalided from the wounds he had received 
in his gallant work with Seymour’s column when, 
from Taku to Lang Fang and back again to Tien 
Tsin, McCalla was the right hand of the admiral, 
and, though wounded by shot and torn by a shell, 
he never “ stopped for repairs,” but holding his men 
to their hot work on the firing line, “ hobbled into 
Tien Tsin at their head.” Like that brave prince 
Emilius in the Moscow campaign : 

11 His valor shed victorious grace on all that dread retreat.” 

130 


OVER WALL AND MOAT 


131 

When 

“ Every follower of his sword could all endure and dare, 

Becoming warriors, strong in hope or stronger in despair.” 

“ Do as you see fit,” he said; “ the lad is a gallant 
youth and between you and me I like to see a fellow 
ready to take risks and willing to brave all to deliver 
his friends from peril. Ned’s got the right stuff in 
him, as his father’s son would be sure to have. Your 
threat is all the raking he needs, I reckon, you ruth- 
less old sun-downer. Set him to work at the front; 
there’s plenty for him to do, heaven knows ! and for 
us, too. But say, Captain ! Do the square thing by 
that American Chinaman who helped him out of 
his scrape. Such virtue needs to be rewarded.” 

So Ned Pevear’s mind was relieved, and the 
“ American Chinaman ” was duly complimented. 

“ But don’t you try any more side expeditions on 
your own hook, Ned,” the captain cautioned the 
lad. “ There’s enough work cut out right here in 
Tien Tsin for you, without attempting to relieve 
Pekin. We’ll attend to that all in due time. And 
as for you, sir,” he added, turning to the Omaha 
merchant, “ we are united in requesting you to re- 
main here also, and act as interpreter between your 
countrymen and ours. Such English-speaking 
Chinamen as you are rare and your services would 
be of much greater benefit to us than the 'pidgin 


T 32 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

talk * of the concession. May we hope for your 
help ? ” 

“ Exalted Captain/' the Christianized Chinaman 
said with a graceful salute, “ you and the captains 
are most kind. But I am of China, although, too, 
I am of America. My interests are both here and 
there, and while I pray to see China Americanized, 
I cannot help to overthrow my native land, or as- 
sist the foreigners who have come to carve out of 
China, colonies for themselves. To help you to the 
relief of your people in Pekin, that is good; that I, 
too, would bring about. But when Pekin is in your 
hands — what then? Where will poor China be? 
At the mercy of Russia and Japan, who hate her; of 
Germany and England who covet her lands, and of 
these other foreign rulers who would have their 
hands also in the plate — all, save the Americans. 
You, I believe, are here only for mercy and not for 
loot. Let me return to my own behind the high 
walls yonder. A string of cash also accomplishes 
much in my China, and I may be of more service to 
you over there than acting as interpreter and gain- 
ing only the hatred and vengeance of my brothers 
on the other side." 

The wise Chinaman's plea was good and there- 
fore was granted. Ned bade him a warm and hearty 
farewell, and by a roundabout route with his coolies 
the merchant took his way back to the native city. 


OVER WALL AND MOAT 


*33 


But Ned found immediate service as messenger and 
aid under Captain Marshall’s orders between the 
concession compound and the trenches that guarded 
the advanced firing line. 

For days these trenches and the defences of the 
foreign concession were in the teeth of a continual 
fire and in the track of relentless warfare. The 
shell fire from the Chinese guns was incessant and 
for nearly a week the hard pressed and outnumbered 
allies acted almost solely on the defensive — “ the 
troops of the eight foremost nations of the world,” 
so Mr. Palmer declares, “ all but besieged by — well, 
by the Chinese ” 

“ We live and learn, Ned,” Captain Marshall said 
to the lad one day, as from the signal tower of Gor- 
don Hall, the loftiest building in Tien Tsin, they 
watched the artillery duel. “ Time was when our 
fellows used to say that one white man with a stick 
could lick all China. But that doesn’t look like it, 
does it ? ” 

He pointed off to where beyond the railway 
bridge across the river the Chinese guns, eight in 
number, practically flanked the allied forces and, 
well masked behind mud earthworks, raked the rail- 
way station and all the section thereby; he called 
Ned’s attention to the Chinese sharpshooters, con- 
cealed behind the big salt piles opposite the French 
concession from which they “ sniped ” at everything 


134 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


in sight, and he showed the young American what 
foreign teaching had done for the Chinese fighters, 
in giving them wit and wisdom enough to use their 
fancy looking pagodas for watch and signal towers 
from which to note and check every movement of 
their enemy. 

“ Just as Tom and I did on the temple roof up the 
line,” Ned remarked. “ But can’t our men put a 
stop to all this ? ” 

“ Evidently the Japs are going to try,” Captain 
Marshall remarked with a critical look. “ See, there 
they go, hiking it to the west gate — pony batteries, 
ammunition, artillerists, spades and doctors. And 
there goes the Jap cavalry on a reconnaissance. 
Hurry, Ned! Jump on your pony. My compli- 
ments to the Japanese major in command ^f the 
cavalry and ask if you may not accompany them. 
I’d like to know how near the Chinks are bringing 
their lines.” 

Ned saluted and dashed down to the street. The 
next instant he was on his waiting “ griffin,” and 
galloping away to the Japanese cavalry barracks. 

“ All right, all right,” the cavalry major said, as 
Ned reported his captain’s desire. “ Proud we are 
to have you by us. America and Japan shall feel 
this enemy, together.” 

Ned fell in behind the little Japanese major and 
the whole cavalry detachment swung out of the west 


OVER WALL AND MOAT 


*35 


gate and galloped toward the river, while the artil- 
lery, fine jaunty little brass field pieces and “ fix- 
ings,” made for the open space beyond the west wall 
where they might get a chance at the big Chinese 
battery. 

The reconnaissance drew out the enemy and a 
sharp little fight was on, in which the dash and ef- 
ficiency of the Japanese sent their hereditary foemen 
skurrying back to the shelter of their earthworks, 
greatly to Ned’s delight; but it drew out more, also. 
For it showed the Japanese major that during the 
night the Chinese besieging lines had been extended 
fully two miles ; a swarm of coolies working on one 
new embrasure had mounted a great gun to com- 
mand the allied line, while to the south, a massing 
of banners showed that Boxers, Imperial troops, or 
both, were gathering for a nearer and formidable at- 
tack on the foreign concessions. 

“ All is not well, my friend,” the Japanese major 
remarked, as through his glasses he studied the 
Chinese advance. “Pray oblige me, sir; gallop 
back to your command and report to the generals 
what we have seen. It is to me apparent that we 
are still more endangered. Only a little farther need 
the enemy go to place his left on the river yonder and 
thus threaten, if not destroy our connection at Taku, 
by driving back or off, our tugs and lighters. It is 
serious, my friend. Pray report it at once.” 


136 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Ned galloped back and reported. The result was 
that, after an artillery duel all that day, in which the 
great twelve pounder of the British warship Terri- 
ble — “ the gun that saved Ladysmith ” — gave back 
the Chinese “ compliments ” in great shape, and the 
destructive work on both sides wrecked buildings 
and ended life in both sections of Tien Tsin, the 
allied commanders agreed upon a sortie and before 
daybreak next morning the desperate move was 
made. 

It seemed desperate because twenty-five hundred 
men were to charge against an unknown number of 
Chinamen, fighters or fanatics all. 

But desperate conditions breed desperate efforts. 
Out of their defences streamed the allied troops — 
Japanese, British, Russians and American marines. 
They were the forlorn hope of the environed invad- 
ers and gallantly they buckled down to their work. 

In five hours it was all over. The indomitable Jap- 
anese — one thousand in all — by a successful flank 
movement, swept down upon the three thousand 
troops of Neh, the Chinese general, flanked them, 
captured their siege guns with five of their great 
banners and, sweeping the Chinamen off in flight, 
left them an easy mark for the little cavalrymen of 
Japan, who charged through the fleeing ranks at a 
great gallop, cutting down soldiers and Boxers as 
they rode. 


OVER WALL AND MOAT 


i37 


It was a daring move in the game of war and 
Ned’s pulse beat quick as he watched the splendid 
charge. And when the Japs rode back and seemed 
scarcely able to hold themselves in check while the 
allied cannon shelled the Western Arsenal, Ned was 
as restless as they and was the first to dash away 
with his comrades when the one hundred American 
marines and the thousand Japs started in a race for 
the West Arsenal, now breached by the allied guns. 

Away from the Taku gate they dashed at the foe, 
while the Russian six hundred chafed to be held in 
reserve and the Japanese cavalry protected the flanks 
of the assaulters. Then came the dose of cold steel 
against which the Chinese soldiers have never yet 
been able to stand. Into the re-formed ranks dashed 
the charge, firing as they ran and then with bayo- 
nets, ready to prick and push, British, Japanese and 
the thin line of American marines overwhelmed and 
overthrew the united force of Boxers and Imperial 
troops, who scattered and fled before an onset they 
could neither face nor repel. 

In a panic they broke for the stone walls of the na- 
tive city; defeated and swept within their works, 
they yielded the ground to the invaders and, to- 
gether, Japanese infantrymen and American ma- 
rines, reached the Western Arsenal. But Japan was 
first in numbers as in position, and as a result of the 
sprinting match the wiry little flagbearer from 


138 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

Nagasaki was first within the embattled wall ; then 
the Japanese flag streamed in triumph above the cap- 
tured wall of the West Arsenal, while the American 
marines joined their voices to the triumphant cheers 
of their boon comrades and shouted “ Nippon! Nip- 
pon ! Hey-hey-hey-Nippon ! ” until they were 
hoarse. 

Ned Pevear was, at all events. He had pressed 
almost to the head of the charge ; he had fought side 
by side with the Japanese heroes, and, while disap- 
pointed that the flag bearer from the island Empire 
had outstripped the flag bearer of the great republic, 
he was generous in his shouts of approval and 
pleasure and loudest in his salute to the red sphere 
on the white ground that represented the sovereignty 
of Japan. 

So the danger to the communications of the allies, 
threatened by the extended lines of the Chinese, was 
temporarily over and the danger of being over- 
whelmed by Chinese hosts and Chinese batteries 
was, for a time, removed. But the allied leaders 
knew that fresh troops were pouring in to the rein- 
forcing of the Chinese, and it was but a question of 
time how soon the yellow bannermen and ferocious 
Boxers, by sheer weight of men and metal, should 
encompass and crush the foreign force. 

At once Admiral Seymour ordered all non-com- 
batants to leave Tien Tsin, and that very day, hun- 


OVER WALL AND MOAT 


i39 


dreds of refugees, most of them women and chil- 
dren, were sent down the Pei-ho to Taku, on tugs 
and lighters, fleeing for safety from the relentless 
and revengeful Boxers. 

The ten thousand allied defenders of Tien Tsin 
were well-nigh spent ; fresh help was needed, in men 
and guns, if the Chinese besiegers were to be suc- 
cessfully resisted. So Ned was despatched as 
special messenger down the river to supplement the 
earlier appeals to the Admirals to hasten the rein- 
forcements and rush forward the guns. 

On the swiftest launch procurable Ned steamed 
down the river, past floating bodies of dead China- 
men, past low banks torn by shell and slippery with 
slime, past lighters and tugs bearing their precious 
freights of refugees and wounded down to the war- 
ships and transports in the harbor, and finally tied 
up at the fort-landing at Taku. 

There good news met him. The Ninth U. S. In- 
fantry, Colonel Liscum’s regiment, just arrived 
from the Philippines, had landed from the trans- 
port Logan and were already transshipping on 
the lighters that were to rush them to Tien Tsin. 
Japanese and Russian troops were also due, and the 
warships in the harbor were stripping themselves of 
all the cannon they could spare from their armament 
and sending them up the river to the beleaguered 
allies. 


140 


‘ UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


But with good news came bad; terrible tidings 
they were that Ned gathered at Taku. The 
foreigners in Pekin were all dead, so the tidings ran. 
Tuan, the bloodthirsty leader of the Boxers and the 
Imperial troops had battered down the walls of the 
legations with his heaviest guns, and through the 
breach, with fire and sword, the victorious besiegers 
had swarmed in for their vengeance, and the accred- 
ited representatives of the great Powers — with their 
women and children, their guests and staffs, their 
slender force of guards, their servants and the refu- 
gees they were protecting, so said the report, had all 
perished in an awful carnival of blood. 

Ned was almost dazed by this terrible news, even 
as the world itself, for an instant, stood still with 
horror as the dreadful tidings spread abroad. 

“ Poor Tom ! ” he said. “ I wonder how it was 
with him ; and that pretty Lisbet ? Horrible ! it is 
all too horrible. Oh! why could not I have got 
through to their succor — and my own death, prob- 
ably? The villains! the barbarians! We’ll wipe 
’em from the face of the earth.” 

“ How are you going to do it, lad? ” queried the 
surgeon-major who had gone back with him on the 
launch. “ Do you know China’s mighty popula- 
tion? It is enough to spread the Yellow Terror 
over the whole world as master, if only these China- 
men know their power and can fight as the Jappies 


OVER WALL AND MOAT 


141 

do. Why, sir, they have a fighting strength of forty 
millions; they eat nothing — to speak of; they need 
nothing, such as our troops demand, and are capable 
as you know, of being drilled into good soldiers, 
quick to master the use of modern guns and readily 
made into serviceable soldiers.” 

“ Yes, but I’ve seen ’em fight,” said Ned. 
“ They’re fair gunners for a bombardment ; but they 
can no more stand in the field against our troops — • 
the allied troops, I mean — than the Filipinos could 
stand before Lawton’s men.” 

“ Not now, perhaps ; but they’re patient and per- 
sistent, M the surgeon-major replied. “ We may 
lick ’em now — I hope we shall; but you mark my 
word, lad, this situation we’re up against has got to 
be mighty carefully handled by the Powers or they 
may take a wrong step and the first one toward rais- 
ing up a yellow peril that may in time overwhelm 
and absorb all the white nations of the earth.” 

Ned Pevear had no faith in such a pessimistic 
statement, and he said so. He believed too implic- 
itly in the civilization of the white man and the 
supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon to admit any such 
possibility as the surgeon-major raised; but he was 
nevertheless terribly disturbed by the sad news from 
Pekin, and it was the first news almost that he con- 
fided to Captain Marshall, after he reported the com- 
ing of the reinforcements and the guns. 


142 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Via Shanghai, eh, Ned? ” said the captain. “ I 
don’t trust these Shanghai despatches; they’re al- 
ways exaggerated, over-alarming or absolutely false. 
Those Chinamen there have a rumor factory in full 
blast, and you always want to take their reports with 
a big grain of. salt. The Chinamen are not all fools ; 
some of ’em, even up at Pekin, can look beyond their 
noses, and they know that such a massacre of lega- 
tion people as you report would set the whole world 
aflame and lead to a universal war with China. I 
tell you, Ned, I won’t believe this is true until I stand 
inside of the walls of Pekin, and see for myself.” 

The captain’s faith greatly strengthened Ned. 

“ Then you believe we will be in Pekin, some- 
time? ” he said. 

“ Sure,” Captain Marshall replied. “ That’s what 
we’re here for, isn’t it? And we fellows generally 
get what we go for. Just you wait until the Ninth 
goes in. You’ll see the fur fly, then.” 

The Ninth came up on the lighters and disem- 
barked at Tien Tsin, and every American in the be- 
leagured town cheered to the echo as the big regulars 
in blue and khaki came swinging into the camp. 

Scant time had the new arrivals for rest. Even 
as they landed a new battle was on. Fukushima, 
the “ square-jawed and tireless ” Japanese general 
had no use for rest or delay; he was there to drive 
the Chinese from their stronghold, and he had vowed 


OVER WALL AND MOAT . 


M3 


that the banner of the red sphere should float above 
the captured walls of the Chinese city before noon. 
So the British marines and the Welsh Fusileers, the 
French colonials, the disciplined Chinese of the Brit- 
ish- Asiatic forces, with Fukushima’s Japanese, 
Major Waller’s American Marines and two battal- 
ions of the Ninth U. S. Infantry were marshalled 
into a composite force — six thousand men in all — to 
assault the Chinese defences, while the Russians were 
to flank the enemy on the east and capture the 
troublesome forts that protected the besiegers at that 
point. 

It was a beautiful plan of action, if only there had 
been a better unity of forces and all had kept their 
heads. But when the Japanese engineers started to 
rush across the little bridge over the canal and blow 
up the South Gate so that the infantry of the com- 
posite force could storm through the breach and into 
the city — behold ! some shrewd Chinaman had been 
before the Japanese general, and the bridge was 
gone ! 

Nothing daunted the Japanese general, Fukushima, 
and the English general, Dorwood, who were the 
joint commanders of the composite force, deter- 
mined to push on the assault. 

“ Go in ! everybody,” came the general order ; 
and marines, infantrymen, Japanese, British and 
Americans went charging in towards the gate, pell 


i 4 4 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


mell, through the mud wall of the outer city to the 
gate in the stone wall of native Tien Tsin. 

Ned Pevear was with the little detail of marines 
that tried to rush the three field guns over the moat 
and through the outer gate so as to bring them to 
bear upon the inner gate. But the road was a nar- 
row one and before long the three guns were badly 
mired at the side of the road and were so commanded 
by the fire of the Chinese riflemen and artillerists 
stationed on the inner wall that the situation became 
almost unbearable. 

Ned had galloped up with orders from Colonel 
Meade to get the guns through at all hazards, and 
as he came up to the mired guns, with the Chinese 
shells bursting in the soft mud all about them, and 
the winging shots of the Chinese riflemen swishing 
and pinging above the heads of the sweating marines 
he rode into an atmosphere of bad language and 
grim determination. 

The boy was off his pony in an instant. 

“ Now then, boys, we’ve got to go in, that’s all 
there is about it. The colonel says so,” he cried, 
and then he, too, was tugging at the ropes. 

Pouf ! crash ! burst the shells ; ping ! ping ! rang 
the bullets. “Now boys, say you will ! One-two- 
three ! rush ’em ! ” came the call from the grizzled 
old sergeant of the gun crew. 


OVER WALL AND MOAT 


i45 


It was the tug of war, muscle against mud. Sud- 
denly, while the iron hail fell all about them, muscle 
won, and Ned gave a ringing hurrah! as the wheels 
moved, and the sweating, struggling “ strenuous ” 
men fairly yanked the mired guns out of the mud, 
up to the road and across the bridge that spanned the 
moat into the safety of the screen of the wall. 

Then out of the long grass, suddenly, as if by 
magic, so it seemed to Ned, came the charge of the 
allies, “ going in,” as three thousand men and more 
swung along the road and over the moat, following 
the lead of the marines and their guns. Ned wheeled 
about to join Major Waller, and as he did so he ran 
almost into the arms of the veterans of San Juan 
fight — Liscum of the Ninth and his regulars. 

Head up, not minding the spatter and swish of 
the Chinese fire more than a summer shower the stal- 
wart colonel looked at the moat. 

“ Hm ! the British general told us to go in,” he 
said ; “ and go it is. I wish I knew the lay of this 
land better. I wonder if that moat is fordable. Is 
it, son? ” he queried, as his eye rested on Ned Pe- 
vear. 

The lad saluted. “ I think not, Colonel,” he said ; 
“ never knew a Chinese moat that was. Whenever 
they build a wall they always stick a bottomless 
ditch around it. I wonder why? ” 


146 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ They’ve never got beyond the middle ages yet, 
son,” replied the colonel. “ Come on, boys, we’ll 
let a blast of the Nineteenth Century into ’em.” 

Then, with its colonel leading, the Ninth Infantry 
crossed the bridge and went charging through the 
outer gate — to death! 

Ned watched the gallant boys in blue and khaki, 
and then, reporting to Major Waller, was soon 
hurrying forward with the American Marines and 
the Welsh Fusileers — those inseparable companions 
of march and assault, fun and fighting — as they 
hurried to the south gate which the Japanese engi- 
neers were to blow up — and did not. 

“ Never mind, boys, we’ll get it all the same,” 
cried Waller. “Now! over the wall with you! 
Charge ! ” 

The straggling lines of Briton and Yankees, Ma- 
rines and Fusileers — leaped to the assault — scarcely 
a hundred in all. 

The Chinese battery of ten guns that commanded 
the wall opened upon them as they came; but over 
the wall, like rabbits on the jump, and then across 
the open space and straight at the Chinese battery 
they leaped and raced — and Ned was with them too. 

“ Up go the colors ! ” he cried, as he raced beside 
the flag. Then he saw stars and tumbled in a heap 
at the very foot of the fort. 


CHAPTER IX 


IN DEFEAT AND VICTORY 

It was only a spent ball, a stumble and a blinding 
puff of dust that threw Ned Pevear to his knees; 
but it was enough to drop him out of the rush for a 
moment, and when his “ daze ” was gone the charge 
had passed over and beyond him. The hundred “ web 
feet ” and Fusileers were already at the fort, and as 
Ned raced to catch up with the charge he let out so 
vigorous a yell that the Chinese gunners on the wall 
believed that a new host of “ foreign devils ” was 
swarming down upon them, and they had but scant 
courage with which to meet the Anglo-Saxon on- 
rush that stormed against their defences. 

' The Anglo-Saxon, indeed, gave the yellow man 
scant time for new courage. Into the fort Yankees 
and Britishers poured and grappling in a hand-to- 
hand fight with those of the Chinese garrison who 
had not turned in flight, they slashed this way and 
that, like the dashing and immortal six hundred at 
Balaklava, 

“ Sabering the gunners while all the world wondered,” 

147 


148 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


until, in so brief a time that it was over almost be- 
fore it began, the fort was cleared of its Chinese de- 
fenders, and, even as Waller’s men had done before 
on Tien Tsin’s defences, the Chinese guns were 
turned upon their former owners, and once again, 
Anglo-Saxon audacity and swiftness had won the 
day. 

So Ned decided. But the day was not yet won. 
The South Gate which was to be breached and car- 
ried still held out, and the storm of Chinese shot 
and shell was flinging havoc into the allied ranks. 

Above the mud wall, which Ned now climbed to 
view the field, unheeding the spat-spat of the Chi- 
nese riflemen, or the swish and plunge of the “ gin- 
gall ” balls, the investigator could see the road to 
the West Gate, thronged with a mass of native 
troops, with mounted officers and streaming ban- 
ners. 

“ They’re going to fight us in the open, I do be- 
lieve,” Ned decided, and straightway reported the 
news to Captain Marshall. 

“ Send your marines down there, Captain,” said 
Colonel Meade. “ Let ’em skirt inside of the mud 
wall and be ready to stand off the Boxers if they 
make a break for the gate.” 

A thin line of marines responded to the order and 
drew up at the gate waiting to repel an assault of 
thousands, which if made must have swamped the 


IN DEFEAT AND VICTORY 


149 


slender force of defenders. But evidently the Chi- 
nese fighters preferred the shelter of stone walls to 
a scrimmage in the open, for they hung on the flank 
of the allies for hours and never tried an advance or 
attack. 

Once again came the call for the marines. 

“ The Ninth is catching it hot,’’ said Colonel 
Meade, as a messenger dashed up with a report. 
“ Captain Marshall, get your company in action and 
hurry to Colonel Liscum’s aid.” 

The Ninth was catching it with a vengeance, as 
Ned discovered, when marching into action with 
Captain Marshall’s company, he camped down on the 
firing line among the mounds of Chinese graves. 
The marines’ inseparables, the British Fusileers, 
were supporting them; but the Ninth, freshly arrived 
and unused as yet to the Chinese mud and marshes, 
were holding the advance in an open field between 
the river and the wall trying vainly to cross the moat 
to the attack on the defenders of the wall who were 
pouring down upon the assailants a relentless rain 
of artillery, rifle and machine guns. * 

It was a dangerous position to hold, and in the 
face of that fire equally fatal to advance or retreat. 
By a blunder the Americans had been ordered to that 
exposed position and dearly did they pay for the 
brigadier’s blunder. 

But it was a day of blunders. There was lack of 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


150 

preparation, lack of co-operation and lack of leader- 
ship. That fierce little fighter, the general of the 
Japanese, had failed to blow up the South Gate be- 
cause of the broken approaches and the withering fire 
from the wall; the Russian general who was to cap- 
ture the Chinese forts that commanded the ap- 
proaches failed to reduce them, also because of the 
Chinese fire; and the British general, a bureau offi- 
cer rather than a battlefield leader, sent in new men 
helter skelter, to hold an untenable position — but 
they held it ! 

“ By Jove ! ” said the captain of the Fusileers, as 
under questionable cover he and Ned Pevear watched 
the gallant Ninth, “ Your infantry stick to it jolly 
well, don’t you know. They ought never to have 
gone in there; but the way they hold the line just 
means that the Chinks can’t turn the right of our at- 
tacking line and cut into the French and the Jappies.” 

Foot by foot the Ninth had “ inched along ” the 
marshes that bordered the river toward the western 
gate and there they lay in the mud, without food or 
water, their ammunition gone, their gallant colonel 
dead. 

“ Keep up the firing,” were the last words of 
Colonel Liscum, as the big, dauntless and veteran 
fighter died beside the ditch he was attempting to 
cross, and the Ninth kept up the firing until they had 
only sufficient ammunition left to repel a charge. 


IN DEFEAT AND VICTORY 151 

But the Chinese, as the men of the Ninth did not 
then know, are not partial to a charge. Instead, they 
stuck to their barricades across the river in a burned 
suburb beneath the inner wall and there with cannon 
shot, and rifle shot and Nordenfelt gun they peppered 
the marsh-surrounded men of the Ninth, sniping the 
wounded, popping at the hospital helpers and hold- 
ing the allies at bay. 

“ Something must be done here,” said Captain 
Marshall. “ Ride, run, Ned,” he commanded. “ Re- 
port the situation to General Dorwood. We can’t 
stay here to see those new fellows of the Ninth shot 
down like sheep or be sniped ourselves. We’ve 
either got to retreat or we must have reinforcements 
enough to rush those walls.” 

Ned dashed over the swamp broken field until he 
skirted the Japanese and British forces and at last 
came up to the British general at his advanced 
“ headquarters ” behind the mud wall. 

The general was hot and worried. He had a 
larger contract than he was able to handle and, some- 
how, he and the Japanese leader had failed to con- 
nect. The demands for help that came to him were 
more than he could answer. 

“And why have not the Tree forts fallen, sir?” 
he demanded of the Russian aid who had just ridden 
in to report. 

“ Ah, sir,” the Russian replied. “ They are too 


152 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


much, these forts — too much, General. You just 
poke your head over the wall and they will fire 
shrapnel at you. To reduce them we must have 
help.” 

“ Um! ” said the Englishman; “ bluffed eh? Well, 
sir? ” this to ' -1. 

“ Captain Marshall’s compliments — of the Ameri- 
can Marines, sir,” explained Ned. “ The Ninth and 
the Marines are both enfiladed in the marshes. He 
requests help or orders.” 

“ Um ! ” again the general remarked. “ Well, sir, 
if the Russians have not reduced the forts, of course 
the whole scheme of attack falls through and we 
shall have to withdraw.” 

“ But our men cannot withdraw, sir, while that 
fire is raking them,” Ned reported. “ The Chinese 
snipe every man that gets up from the marsh grass. 
The wounded are taken from the field in a perfect 
rain of bullets ? ” 

“ We’ll have to withdraw after dark then,” said 
the general calmly. “ It’s a very pretty movement — 
this withdrawing under cover of darkness,” he added, 
with scientific enthusiasm. “ My compliments to the 
commander of the American infantry. Tell him I 
blame myself for the mistake in placing his troops 
in a position that men unacquainted with the ground 
should not have occupied. I regret the loss of their 
Colonel, Liscum, and I appreciate the honor of hav- 


IN DEFEAT AND VICTORY 


*53 


ing him and his men under my command. But they 
must withdraw; the position is not tenable; tell the 
commander to have his men, when withdrawn, sleep 
upon their arms, for we shall renew the attack in the 
morning. And, on your way back, sir,” the general 
continued, “ if you can find the Ja o lese general — 
General Fukushima — pray inform him of my action 
in ordering withdrawal and ask him kindly to co- 
operate.” 

Ned rode back with the general's orders, cast 
down and disappointed. 

“Withdraw? fall back?” he said. “I don't like 
that. I came to ask for reinforcements not for re- 
treat orders. Our boys aren’t here to go back. I 
wonder — ah! there’s the Japs’ line. I suppose I 
must hunt up their general and give him Dorwood’s 
message.” 

Three hundred yards beyond the English position, 
Ned rode into the Japanese lines, and found the little, 
plucky, square- jawed general. 

“Is it to retreat he advises?” Fukushima cried. 
“ Never, sir! when my men move it will be that they 
go forward. We have breached the enemy’s walls; 
we will charge them in the morning.” 

Ned almost cheered when he heard the little gen- 
eral’s brave assertion. 

“Ah, sir, you Japanese are fighters,” he said. 
“ But I’m afraid our boys can’t hold their position 


154 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


out there in the marshes unless they have more help. 
Our ammunition is gone and we’ve nothing to eat.” 

“ It is bad,” the Japanese said. “ Your fresh 
troops, unknowing the ground and with scant am- 
munition and food, should never have been sent to 
that exposed an / 4 advanced position. Let your com- 
mander have his troops withdraw, as the General 
Dorwood advises, for rest and relief, and they will 
be better prepared for the fight we must have in 
the morning. All night will I batter the walls with 
lyddite shells and that will give me a breach to storm 
through by daylight. Courage, my young friend! 
We are as good as in the city, even now.” 

So Ned rode away, as braced up by the Japanese 
general’s optimism as he had been cast down by the 
report of the British general. 

“ Those Japs are fighters ! ” the lad declared to 
himself. “ By George! they just won’t give up. It 
looks to me like a defeat. We were going to be in 
the city by noon, and here it is night and we’re not in 
yet. Instead, we’ve got to pull out. Well, what’s 
the odds! We’ll be in that city yet, or I don’t know 
what fighting is.” 

Ned that day certainly had ample opportunity to 
learn what fighting was. Never before had the Chi- 
nese been so obstinate in resistance or so accurate 
in their aim; never had the Japanese been more 
daring, the British more firm or the Americans more 


IN DEFEAT AND VICTORY 


*55 


tenacious of their hold. But all day the battle had 
gone steadily against the allies. There was lack of 
co-operation; no one commander (save Colonel Lis- 
cum, who had gone in to win) would take orders 
from an allied commander; there were blunders in 
plans, blunders in action, blunders in details. When 
night came down, it fell upon the allies still held at 
bay, partially retreating and practically defeated, 
counting their losses and binding up their wounds 
outside the walls of the inner city of Tien Tsin 
which they had expected to capture easily before 
noon of that unlucky day. 

When Ned rode back to the American line where 
cheek by jowl, Yankee marines and Welsh Fusileers 
held their position, Captain Marshall met him. 

“Well, Ned, where are the reinforcements ? ” he 
demanded. 

“ There are none, Captain,” Ned replied. “ Gen- 
eral Dorwood advises withdrawal, until morning.” 

The captain of marines dug his heel into the 
ground, and said nothing. 

“ Well, we’ve done our best,” he said, at length. 
“ With all the strings pulling different ways how 
could we help getting into a snarl. But, by George ! 
it’s rough, Think of the brave fellows we’ve had 
shot down trying to hold untenable positions and 
advancing unsupported. Push on to the firing line, 
Ned. See if you can find Major Lee of the Ninth 


156 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

and give him General Dorwood’s orders. Then find 
Major Waller and see if we can be of any benefit to 
his marines. ,, 

Ned dashed away to bear his orders to the Ninth. 
The moon, now clouded, now uncovered, gave but 
uncertain guidance to his steps, but he scarce needed 
that as he skirted the stream of litters and carts go- 
ing in, and the stream of burden bearers and im- 
provised ambulance teams coming out. For those 
going in were empty ; but those coming out were full. 
The gallant Ninth had received a baptism of fire in 
Chinese battle that day that had cast their Santiago 
experiences far in the shade. 

The moon struggled out of the flying clouds as 
Ned, for the fortieth time, slipped aside for the litter 
bearers to pass. And as he did so, he looked upon 
the face of the still form on the litter and his young 
heart fairly burst over the sacrifice he saw. For the 
moonbeams fell upon the face of the dead Colonel of 
the Ninth, the brave Liscum, who obeyed orders even 
though he knew them to be a blunder, the gallant vet- 
eran of four wars, dead in his fifth, unconscious of his 
country’s reward for gallant service, slated for the 
promotion that was never to come to him on earth. 

Ned uncovered as the hero passed; he remembered 
how Lawton died in Luzon, and his heart was sad, 
while his tongue was silent. Then he pushed on to 
the advance. 


IN DEFEAT AND VICTORY 


i57 


“ I must withdraw,” said Major Lee of the Ninth. 
“ My men are dead tired, hungry and without am- 
munition. Our position is simply untenable.” 

And then with marvellous skill, by what the Brit- 
ish general applauded as “ a delicate military opera- 
tion finely carried out,” the shattered Ninth with- 
drew from the position it had held, practically alone 
and unsupported, for twelve hours never yielding a 
foot, and the disastrous day before Tien Tsin came 
to a gloomy close. 

But before he slept Ned hurried across the open 
plain to where by the western gate Major Waller and 
his marines were guarding the rear. Among the 
dead and the sleeping, Ned found the Major, alert as 
ever, letting his men take their rest, but with his eye 
open for trouble. 

He was sure he had spied it when Ned came to him 
with Captain Marshall’s inquiry. 

“ Thanks, lad,” he said, “ I don’t know as the 
captain can help me — yet. I may need him later. 
Look over yonder. What do you see ? ” 

Ned peered into the darkness. 

“A lot of lights moving every which way, sir,” he 
replied. 

“ That’s right,” the major said. “ I think the 
Chinks are cooking up some sort of a night attack. 
If they are, my night’s work is cut out for me. My 
compliments to Captain Marshall, and tell him to 


1 5 8 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

keep an eye open — and an ear, too. I may need him 
before morning.” 

But he did not need him. The Chinese behind the 
city wall, although they had “ stood off ” the allies 
all that day of battle had done so at terrible loss. 
Counting their dead and wounded their courage gave 
way. Still before them lay the allied forces of the 
“ foreign devils,” who did not know when they were 
whipped, but kept banging away at the thirty foot 
'walls with those horrible lyddite shells, knocking 
over huts and houses and bringing ruin and death in 
their path. They never reasoned that the losses of the 
allies might cripple and deter the attacking forces; 
they saw only their own losses and, losing heart, de- 
termined to withdraw out of harm’s way. Those 
moving lights that Major Waller and Ned Pevear 
had seen were not massing for a night attack ; they 
meant retreat. And sure enough, when morning 
dawned, the walls of Tien Tsin were undefended; 
the town was vacant of soldiers; the Chinese had fled, 
and the city of Tien Tsin lay open before the persist- 
ent and determined allies. 

The Japanese were in first. But Ned Pevear was 
a close second. Tired though he was he could not 
sleep, and when at midnight there came a lull in the 
fire of the lyddite shells banging away at the South 
Gate, the sudden silence woke the boy from his 
heavy but uncertain sleep and he was quickly on his 


IN DEFEAT AND VICTORY 


i59 


feet, straining an ear to listen. Then he heard from 
the Japanese lines, the clear notes of a bugle, the 
cries of command, the noise of shuffling feet. Like 
a flash he broke away from the bivouac of the ma- 
rines and hastened to the Japanese line. 

The troops were already in motion. 

“ Nippon! Nippon! ” cried Ned, as he joined the 
Jap advance, and then at double quick, through the 
yawning breaches at the South Gate and through 
the frowning gateway itself, the soldiers of the rest- 
less and watchful Fukushima dashed into the city 
and before three o’clock of that mid-July morning 
Ned and the Japanese general stood within the inner 
wall of the native city. 

“ General,” said the lad, saluting, “ I am of the 
American Marines. Will you use me as volunteer 
aid? I’d like to make myself useful.” 

“ Ah ! it is the wide-awake young American, eh ? ” 
said Fukushima. “ It is good, young sir; you are in 
at the death, is it so? Go, tell your commander we 
are in the city. Let the bombarding not begin again. 
We need only silent guns now, save where my in- 
fantry keep the enemy quiet yonder where some of 
them would make an annoyance of us beyond the 
walls. Let the allies enter, while I break in these 
houses near the gate which may hold guns and am- 
munition or, perhaps, ambushed Chinese. We will 
make the conquest complete this time.” 


160 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

Ned saluted again and corralling a stray “ griffin, 5 ’ 
rode back through the ruined gate toward the lines 
of the sleeping allies. 

He roused Marshall and Meade and Coolidge; he 
roused the marines and the men of the Ninth, the 
Welsh Fusileers and the British general. 

“ We are in the city,” he cried. “ The general of 
the Japs has sent me to say no more firing. We’re in 
the city ! ” 

Then at last the allies were all astir and pouring 
into the captured city now, it seemed, in flames as the 
shops along the main street between the North Gate 
and the South caught from the fire that blazed within 
the pagoda area of the great South Gate; and then 
the looting began. 

Ned did not like the looks of that. The orders 
to the American troops had been to respect private 
property and to take nothing in the way of spoil 
from the enemy. 

But what is to be done when a town is in flames ? 
If goods and curios are not taken they will be burned, 
and if one side spares them the other will not — for 
the Chinese mob is the most untrammeled of looters. 

Ned thought of his old friend Maskin, the English 
free lance who, if you recall the story of “ Lawton 
and Roberts,” had, you know, been with him in the 
Philippines and whose first thought after victory had 
always been dinero , or loot. 


IN DEFEAT AND VICTORY 161 

“ I wonder what Maskin would have done here? ” 
the American said, as in the burning, filthy main 
street of native Tien Tsin he stood in the midst of 
men of all nationalities rushing this way and that, 
loaded down with loot — silks and furs and finest 
cloths, vases and ornaments and other spoil of the 
wrecked and burning shops, with terrified Chinamen 
waving white flags, or “ kotowing ” in abject sub- 
mission, or seeking to placate the conquering foreign 
devils with offerings of cakes and melons and mys- 
terious Chinese food. 

“ Ullo ! young ’un, ’ere we hare, eh ? ” a voice 
greeted him and turning Ned saw the old sergeant of 
British Marines who had stood with him in that first 
fight with the Boxers on the railway near Lang 
Fang. “ Wot hare you catching? Hany think good.” 

“ I don’t think we ought to, sergeant,” the Ameri- 
can replied. “ Our orders are dead against it.” 

“ Ho ! horders be blowed ! ” the sergeant replied 
and he pushed before him an overburdened coolie, 
weighed down with the sergeant’s spoil of sable and 
mink and Thibet wool. “ This ’ere stuff is better 
off with me than burning up in a store ’ouse. Wot 
was it one of you Yankee fellers said once: ‘To 
the victors belong the spoils.’ H’aint we the victors, 
I arsk ye? And this ’ere Tien Tsin is a bloomin’ 
good fur market. Dip in for yourself, lad. This is 
one of the times it’s worth bein’ in the service.” 


162 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


But Ned could not feel that way. To him orders 
were orders, and must be obeyed. So, while he stood 
thus, a spectator rather than a participant, he found 
himself surrounded by bowing and kotowing China- 
men with hands full of proffered cakes and, on their 
lips, the plea for passes — passes that should let them 
through the allied lines. 

“ I don’t know what you want, boys,” said the 
American. “No, I don’t want your cakes, thank 
you. I don’t know what’s in ’em. Hardtack’s safer. 
‘ Plassy ’ — ‘ plassy ’ — what’s * plassy ’ ? ” 

“ They ask for passes, O friend, passes to give 
them safety within your lines,” a voice replied in 
explanation, and looking down from where he stood 
on the steps that led up to the pagoda on the wall, 
Ned spied his old friend, the Omaha merchant. 

He grasped the Chinaman’s hands cordially. 

“ So, you’re here, and alive, eh? ” he cried. “ Show 
me that cangue, will you ? It’s the only thing I want 
of all the loot. I’d like to send that home as a keep- 
sake, just to show folks what I’ve ‘ gone through ’ 
in China, you know.” 

The Chinese merchant failed to appreciate Ned’s 
joke, even as he could not understand why in the 
midst of a plundered city this American lad should 
prefer an ugly wooden collar to the riches of the 
wrecked bazaars. 

He said as much and Ned explained that he 


IN DEFEAT AND VICTORY 


* 6 3 

couldn’t take any loot without disobeying" orders and 
that he had suffered quite enough already by break- 
ing orders. 

“ Ah ! but this is different, my friend,” the Omaha 
merchant said. “ Give to me 'the pass that holds me 
safe among the allies, and I will show you treasures 
that you may have without disobeying your orders.” 

Ned wrote the pass — every “ ally ” did, in what- 
ever language was his own, — and soon found himself 
in such demand for similar passes from the clamor- 
ous crowd that thronged the pagoda steps that he 
was glad to escape the crush and to follow his Omaha 
friend out of the press and around to the space beside 
the Viceroy’s Yamen, where he had worn the wooden 
collar. 

Before the blackened walls of the Yamen, a group 
of French marines had thrown down a great pile of 
loot and were now banqueting on the confiscated 
pigs that are the street scavengers of every native 
Chinese city. They offered Ned a share of the feast, 
but he declined with thanks and following his con- 
ductor, soon stood within a storehouse behind the 
Yamen walls into which no foreigner had yet pene- 
trated. 

“ See, my friend, here are the treasures of a city — 
official stealings wrung by the tyrant officials from 
their subjects as bribe and spoil. Pick — select- 
take ! Is it not yours who have conquered and driven 


164 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


away these bribe-takers of the Manchu usurpers, 
these upstart Tartars who have made my China what 
she is to-day ? ” 

Ned hesitated. It was a temptation, but he still 
resisted it. 

“ It is not right,” he said. “ I must obey orders, 
you know.” 

“ But this is not private spoil, this is not robbing 
the people,” said the merchant. “ This is yours, as 
victor. Look! here are jade and pearl and coral, 
Here is a viceroy’s ransom. Here — ” 

The Omaha merchant got no further. Ned’s rov- 
ing eyes, taking in the tempting view, followed the 
lantern gleam no longer in the darkened room. It 
was dark indeed; darker than ever for himself and 
his Chinese friend. 

For while to their ears came the cry of the victors, 
telling of spoil and conquest, over their heads were 
suddenly dropped some enveloping, imprisoning, 
blinding wrapping, and then, thrown down, sight- 
less, gagged and bound, while not a sound or a 
word told, in the darkness who their captors were, 
Ned Pevear and his companion lay prisoners, en- 
trapped and overpowered within the viceroy’s treas- 
ure house. 


CHAPTER X 


OUT OF THE VICEROY'S TREASURE HOUSE 

Unnerved and almost for the instant unmanned 
by his sudden surprise and overthrow, Ned lay still 
for an instant, uncertain what to do. 

Indeed, he could do but little to free himself. 
Bound, gagged and blinded, he could scarce move 
hand or foot, while his mouth was too effectually 
stopped to call out or to question. So he lay silent 
and quiet. 

What perplexed him the most was the uncertainty 
as to the loyalty and honesty of the Omaha mer- 
chant who had led him into this latest scrape. For, 
while he had grown to believe and trust in the Ameri- 
canized Chinaman, it was certain that it was this 
man who had led him into the viceroy's treasure 
house, who had been with him at the moment of 
surprise and who had — here Ned’s reasoning went 
wild as he remembered that the Chinaman also had 
been overcome and bound like himself. 

And why should he have been thus decoyed, be- 
trayed and bound, he wondered? Why was he not 
165 


i66 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


killed at once by these secret defenders of the vice- 
roy’s treasure ? Why had he not — well ! it was all 
a puzzle, he declared to himself, and what was the 
use of attempting to unravel it? Besides, there he 
lay, bound hand and foot. It was better to study 
how he could free himself rather than wonder how 
he got there. 

But to free himself, just then, was a problem be- 
yond his solving. He could only lie still and plan 
impossibilities until the weariness of his exertions of 
the day before overcame even his anxiety and per- 
plexity, and he dropped into a heavy sleep. 

When he awoke he was conscious of motion; he 
was being carried somewhere, but how or where he 
could not determine. He tried to discover his con- 
dition and surroundings by exploration with hand 
and foot ; but hand and foot were still bound, and his 
head was still muffled as, indeed, his whole body 
seemed to be enwrapped and covered by some sub- 
stance like cloth or furs. 

Ned found, however, that he could breathe all 
right. Evidently he was not to be smothered or 
crushed by whatever enveloped him, for he could 
feel that, however he was being transported, his 
mouth was free not to call out, because of his gag, 
but to breathe in the air that could keep him alive. 
At length Ned figured it out to his partial satis- 
faction; he was wrapped up in silks and furs and be- 


OUT OF THE TREASURE HOUSE 167 

ing carried out of Tien Tsin on the back of a pack 
horse, bound — where? 

There his reasoning and theories ended. He sim- 
ply did not know who had him, a prisoner, nor 
whither he was bound. 

How long he had been in motion he could not tell. 
He wondered where was his friend, the Omaha mer- 
chant, if the man really was his friend. He won- 
dered — the wondering stopped for an instant, as a 
familiar sound fell on the boy’s ear — the sound of 
an undoubted American voice. 

“Halt! who goes there? Show up, Chinkie! 
What are you lugging off ? ” 

The pony stopped. Then Ned had a second 
shock. 

“ All is right, gentlemen ” a voice replied which 
he recognized at once. “I do but bear my own 
goods out of harm’s way. See, I have a pass from 
one of your officers.” 

“ Talks American, eh! ” was the comment. “ Let’s 
see what the pass says : * Pass the bearer, an Ameri- 
can Chinaman and loyal to the allies, through the 
lines with his own goods. (Signed) Edward Pevear, 
Jr. Aid to the Admiral.’ Hm ! aid to what admiral ? 
Who’s giving passes anyhow ? ” 

“ Everybody, I reckon,” came the reply from a 
comrade. “ You did, I did, this fellow did. Great 
Scott ! every blamed man of the allies has set up for 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


1 68 

provost-marshal. What else you goin’ to do when 
these Chinks come round you, kissing the ground and 
givin’ ye stuff you wouldn’t dare to eat if you was 
a-starving. They’re all good friends now, you know.” 

“ But do we let this Yankee Chinky through the 
lines, boys ? ” queried the sentry. “ Who’s this Ed- 
ward Pevear — junior — anyhow? Do any of you 
fellers know him ? ” 

“ Sure,” came the answer. “ Why, you know the 
kid, Thompson. He’s that plucky little chap that 
came in with Marshall of the Marines, and was with 
Seymour on his relief that didn’t relieve. Cheeky 
kid, but true blue, that’s what Ned Pevear is. He 
was on the firing line or carrying messages all day 
yesterday. O yes, he’s aid to the Admiral all right, 
even if Seymour has gone back to the fleet.” 

“ All right, let the Chinaman go through. Drive 
on, Johnny. What you got in your packs, anyhow? ” 

“ Silks and furs, sir, saved from my burning ware- 
house,” was the reply. “ I am near to ruin by these 
Boxers and these Russian plunderers. Let me save 
what I can, I pray you.” 

“ Gorry ! talks American like a native^ don’t he ? 
Those fellers are scarcer’n hen’s teeth. He’d make 
a dandy interpreter. Better stay with us, Johnny. 
We’ll give you a job. No? Can’t? All right, all 
right. Push on with your pack horses. I guess 
you’re O. K.” 


OUT OF THE TREASURE HOUSE 169 

And the pony began to move again. 

Swathed in silks and furs, bound tightly in his 
pack, Ned Pevear lay in a fever of anxiety, strug- 
gling in vain to let his comrades know that an Ameri- 
can prisoner lay concealed in that bale of loot. He 
knew the truth now. The Omaha merchant was but 
a false friend. He had decoyed the American lad 
into the viceroy’s treasure house to capture and bear 
him off to the insurgent Boxers who would give 
him something worse than the cangue, something 
more to be feared than bastinado or imprisonment. 
He was being stolen out of the camp of the allies to 
torture and death, betrayed by this false Chinaman. 

He struggled, but to no purpose; he tried in vain 
to shout and call for release; his limbs were too 
tightly bound; his mouth was too securely gagged; 
work and strain as he might he could do nothing and, 
limp and exhausted with his exertions, sweating from 
anxiety and vain efforts to free himself he felt him- 
self moving away from his last hope of rescue, and, 
overcome and undone by the terror of his situation, 
the poor boy actually swooned away. 

When, at last, he recovered consciousness, he felt 
himself still moving on. At last, the pony on whose 
back he was packed stopped again, and Ned could 
hear the tap of water as it rippled against the river 
bank or the sides of some sort of vessel. Then he 
felt himself lifted from the pony’s back and trans- 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


170 

ferred to the deck of the river-boat, if such it was, 
while all about him the only speech he heard was 
that of his enemies the Chinese. He felt a motion 
of a new sort, and knew that the junk or river-boat 
to which he had been transferred was being poled up 
some canal or river — “ en route to the Boxers,” he 
decided. 

Again hunger, weakness and anxiety overcame 
him and once more he fell into a heavy sleep. 

“ Queer that I should want to sleep so much,” Ned 
said to himself, as his waking moments would now 
and then return. “ I’m not such a sleepy head as all 
that. I wonder what makes me. I suppose I’m all 
played out, or, else — Great Scott! that’s what it is; 
that blamed Chink of a traitor has drugged me, so as 
to keep me still.” And off he would float again to 
the land of troubled dreams. 

Once or twice the wrappings would be loosened, 
the thongs that bound him would be eased, the gag 
would be removed and he could feel that he was be- 
ing fed with rice and tea. At first he would try to 
resist. “ Perhaps they’re poisoning me,” he thought, 
and then he would try to call out or shout his pro- 
tests in vigorous American; but only the jabber of 
Chinese jargon and determined looks from un- 
familiar faces greeted his words, and again he would 
be “ packed in his bale of loot,” as he declared, and 
quickly fall into sleep again. 


OUT OF THE TREASURE HOUSE 17 1 

So the journey proceeded; how long the time was 
Ned could not tell; it seemed to him he had always 
been going on in this way; he lost track of time; 
hours, days or weeks, he could not tell which, had 
been passing over him; he was nothing but merchan- 
dise, bound, he knew not to what market or to what 
fate. As, afterwards, he recalled that nightmare 
journey, he always felt it to be a wonder that he 
did not go crazy. 

But it takes a good deal to turn the brain or un- 
settle the reason of a healthy boy; so Ned neither 
went crazy nor died from imprisonment and ex- 
haustion. Instead, he grew somewhat used to his 
strange position, cramped and bound though he was, 
and, as little by little his bonds were eased or 
loosened, be found himself able to move his arms and 
legs a bit, and he knew his captors did not mean to 
let him die on the journey, but were keeping him 
alive for something — for what? he wondered. 

At last there came a day — or an hour — Ned could 
not say which — when the boat stopped and was ap- 
parently tied to the bank. And then the bale, of 
which Ned was a part was handed from the boat, 
run ashore in a cart or wheelbarrow, he could not 
say which, and the next instant lifted in air and 
placed on something “soft and squashy,” so the boy 
declared. Other bales seemed hoisted beside him and 
then at a word, evidently of command, the “ soft and 


172 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


squashy ” thing, whatever it was, rose slowly and 
unsteadily into the air and began moving off with a 
slow, lumbering, stumbling, swinging, sea-sick sort 
of motion over a broken and humpy road. 

“ What under the sun am I up against now, I 
wonder? ” was Ned’s thought. “ I’m not on a boat 
because the thing goes with a stomp or a sort of a 
slide. It isn’t a horse, I know from the feel ; it isn’t 
a litter or a cart because it is soft and yielding and 
it’s got legs. It isn’t — by George! I know,” he 
gave a start as he lay inside his bundle, as the ex- 
planation came to him, “ I’m up on a camel. I’m 
part of a caravan, and they’re carrying me off into 
Thibet or Tartary or the land of the Great Mogul. 
Great Scott ! where am I to end, I wonder ? ” 

It was of no use for him to wonder, though of 
course he couldn’t help it. On and on the great, un- 
gainly beast that bore him, went with the noiseless 
tread and sulky grunt that is the way of all camels. 
Then the beast seemed to turn aside from the di- 
rection he had been taking, and a sensation of shadow 
and overhanging walls, that he felt, but could not 
see, a babel of sound and speech, a beating of drums 
and the boom of cannon mingled confusedly in the 
boy’s ears. 

The caravan, at least Ned’s one camel of it, stood 
still for what seemed to him an age, within the 
shadow of the wall or gate — Ned could not decide 


OUT OF THE TREASURE HOUSE 


*73 


which it was — while all about him the babel of ex- 
cited speech and the distant sounds of war went on. 
Several times rough and inquisitive hands were laid 
upon the bale in which he lay, tightly bound and 
gagged again, and once he thought he was to be 
hauled down. But, so it seemed to him, one of his 
companion bales was unloaded and then after an in- 
terval hoisted again to the camel’s back and Ned’s 
sharpened intelligence concluded that the camel’s 
load had been investigated and examined. 

“ Well ! I’ve passed the custom house, I guess,” 
the lad decided. “ I wonder what class of goods I 
come under and what the duty on me is. Duty? 
Um! a fine way this to do your duty, Ned Pevear. 
Trussed up like a turkey on a camel’s back, and 
bound, heaven knows where ! ” 

Along a narrow street, through a renewed babel of 
sounds and through such a confusion of strange and 
vile and awful smells that Ned was glad to bury his 
nose in the goods that formed his pillow, the camel 
went on. Then the lad knew he had turned into a 
narrower street and when at last the beast on which 
he rode came to a sudden halt, somehow, so Ned felt, 
he had come to the end of his journey. 

“ Now, then, to see what we shall see,” he said 
to himself. “ Great Scott ! if they’ll only untie me 
and let me stretch myself and breathe just once like 
a Christian, I don’t care how soon they kill me.” 


i74 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


The camel knelt down to be unloaded; there was 
an untying of cords and Ned could feel the bale or 
bundle next him slip into the lifting arms of the ware- 
housemen. 

“ My turn next/’ he said, and then his heart al- 
most stopped beating; for something happened. 

The firing of the great guns, into the sound of 
which he had come, had slackened a bit as he waited 
to be unloaded; then it seemed to redouble; then 
there came a nearer, sharper sound — the crack of 
rifles and small arms, an enraged jumble of Chinese 
shouts and cries, the shuffling, hurrying noise of 
countless slippered feet, the tramp of heavy boots 
such as Chinamen never wore, coming at double 
quick; a mass of flying, crowding, desperate men 
seemed to swarm into and choke the narrow street, 
so that the kneeling camel was well-nigh over- 
whelmed, and Ned thanked his lucky stars that his 
bale was not the main one just then, as scores of hu- 
man forms seemed leaping over the poor camel, who 
still knelt, trampled upon, used as a stepping stone, 
grunting and squealing its fear and protest but un- 
able to move, for the press. 

Then the tide of retreat passed over; the tramp of 
heavy feet came nearer, and as the outraged camel 
staggered to its feet, almost bellowing in its rage, 
above all rose a sound that brought wonder, fear and 
joy to the ears of the poor lad still trussed on the 


OUT OF THE TREASURE HOUSE 175 

shaking camel. It was a rousing, ringing, victori- 
ous British cheer. 

“ Keep it up, boys! keep at it! ” Ned could hear 
the shout of command. “ Into ’em once more. Give 
’em cold steel ! Charge ! Charge ! Charge ! ” 

Then the bayonet charge passed over him and he 
seemed quite alone. 

Fear overmastered his joy. 

“ O no ! no ! they cannot, they must not pass me. 
That would be too cruel,” he thought. He thought, 
for he could not speak this fear. The gag was too 
firmly fixed in his mouth; the bonds held him too 
closely imprisoned. 

“ O God ! do not let them pass me by ! Let them 
find me; let them find me!” his heart shaped the 
prayer his lips could not utter. “ Thank God ! the 
relief has come. The allies are in Pekin.” 

Gratefulness took the place of fear, and then as 
the shouting died in the distance and he was alone, 
fear again succeeded to gratitude. 

A crowd of slippered feet came surging down the 
narrow street. A shrill chorus of delighted Chi- 
nese cries filled the air, as the thieving fringe of 
battle swooped down upon the deserted camel and 
the bale of loot. Ned felt his bale rudely pulled from 
the camel’s back and a dozen despoiling hands tug at 
the string. Was he, after all, to fall into the hands 
of native thieves and murderers ? 


176 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Again the tramp of heavy boots came to his ears; 
the charge was over; the soldiers were coming back. 
Ned could hear the shouts and calls and laughter of 
the returning force. Oh ! would they not get to his 
side before the looters got away? 

It seemed impossible; but at sight of the terrible 
foreign devils who had charged so furiously against 
their brothers, filling the street, the looters turned to 
scurry off ; some, however, not willing to leave good 
spoil picked up the bale that contained the suffering 
Ned Pevear and would have dragged it away. 

“ Loot ! loot ! ” came the English cry. “ Drop that, 
drop that bundle you bloomin' Chinks, or we'll drop 
you!" 

Desperately the Chinese thieves struggled to drag 
off their spoil. There came the sharp crack of a pistol, 
another, and yet another, and Ned felt himself drop 
heavily to the ground, while across him and his 
“ pack " fell a heavy, lifeless body. The spoiler had 
been stopped. 

“ ’Ere you are boys ! a prize, a prize. Get off with 
the loot. Open up and see what’s it. Smithers, you 
bloomin’ old swab, 'ang me, if you didn’t snipe that 
camel. Wot’d ye kill him for? 'E’s no Boxer. Open 
up, Jack. Let’s see what we’ve got ’ere." 

“ Fall in men, fall in! we’ve no time to waste 
here," came the command of an officer. “ Those fel- 


OUT OF THE TREASURE HOUSE 177 


lows will get back at us before we can make the gate. 
Fall in, I say. Drop the loot.” 

“ Not if we know it, Jack, we won’t,” one of the 
looters grumbled. “ Got to have a little fun out o’ 
this. ’Ang these cords ! they won’t break. Cut ’em, 
Jack. Cut ’em, I say, ’fore the lef tenant stops us. 
There you be. My hye! silks, furs, — Ei! By the 
great — wot’s this? A dead man. No! ’e’s alive; and 
a white man tied up and gagged. Ho, ’ei, leftenant ! 
Look a ’ere, sir. See wot’s ’ere. It’s a white man — 
a Britisher, eh? tied up in the bale and trussed up 
for torture.” 

“ Cut his ropes ! Pull out his gag ! ” the young 
lieutenant ordered as he led a crowd of men to 
“ Jack’s find.” 

Too stiff to move; weakened and wearied by his 
long confinement and his horrible experiences, Ned 
Pevear could neither stand nor speak for an instant. 
He lay back, stiff, sore, silent. Then, as he caught 
the gleam of friendly eyes and heard the blessed 
sound of English speech, he said feebly : 

“ Thank you, boys. Where am I ? Who are you. 
Are the allies in Pekin ? ” 

“ No, but you are, lad,” the lieutenant said. 

“ Who are you? Hark! they’re forming again. Pick 
him up, boys; rush him back till we come up to the 
litters. No time to explain now. Handle him easy. , 


178 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


My eye! lad, but you must have had an experience. 
Fall in, men; double quick back to the gates. We 
don’t want those Boxers to get between us and 
safety.” 

A big marine picked up Ned and, carrying him in 
his arms, joined the double quick of his comrades up 
and out of the street. 

Dazed and dull still, Ned could only feel that 
somehow he was saved and he shut his eyes as his 
carrier sped with him to safety. Up the street and 
across an open devastated place, swept by fire and de- 
struction the marines hurried, and soon Ned was 
dropped from the big fellow’s strong arms to a litter 
which two bearers lifted and sped away toward 
what Ned through half opened eyes saw to be a 
frowning wall, lined with soldiers and civilians 
armed with rifles and hurrahing loudly. 

The big marine still trotted by the side of the 
litter. 

“Who are you fellows?” Ned cried to the ma- 
rine, curiosity getting the better of exhaustion. 
“ And what are you doing ? ” 

“ We’re marines from the legations — British 
Yankees, Dutchmen and Japs,” the marine answered 
as he ran. “ Cap’n Myers, ’e made a great charge 
and now we’re hiking back to the legations. Mighty 
good thing for you we did, lad. Lord knows where 
you’d been now if it hadn’t a been for us.” 


OUT OF THE TREASURE HOUSE 179 

“ The legations! Then you're alive,” Ned still 
found strength to exclaim. 

“ Alive, lad ! ” laughed the marine. “ Ay, we are 
that; and kicking, too, as we showed the Chinks to- 
day. They haven’t got at us yet behind these five- 
foot walls and ’anged if we’re goin’ to let ’em. So, 
brace up, lad and be one of us,” he added with an en- 
couraging look at Ned. “ A chap as comes wropped 
up in parcels like you ought to have some bloomin’ 
good to him when he gets untied. Horse flesh and 
kitty prog ’ll make a man of you. 

The Compound gate swung open for the re- 
turning defenders who by a daring sortie and a vig- 
orous charge had scattered the howling besiegers of 
the foreign legations. Few had been hurt in the 
action and the litters that had been sent out to meet 
them came back almost free from the grim burden 
of the battle field. 

So when Ned Pevear’s litter came through the 
gate a curious throng surrounded it. There were 
faces of seven nationalities in the crowd — ladies and 
gentlemen, children and Chinamen, missionaries and 
marines, defenders and defended, and the one ques- 
tion was “ Who was wounded? ” 

The lieutenant in command of the detachment that 
had brought in the litter saluted his superior. 

“ A white man, sir,” he reported. “ My men 
found him gagged and bound, tied up in a bale of 


i8o UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

merchandise on a camel’s back. I haven’t questioned 
him yet; he’s pretty weak. I don’t know what he 
was doing in that bale of goods, but he looks to me 
like an American marine or soldier. He wears the 
blue and khaki.” 

Ned tried to rouse himself to explain. He sought 
to lift his head and carry his hand to the salute, but 
he could scarcely do more than make the attempt. 

“Yes — American,” he said. “Smuggled — China- 
men. Aid to the Admiral and Captain M — ” 

A glad cry of recognition and a half hurrah rang 
out as a young Britisher sprang to the side of the 
litter. 

“My hat! but it is — it’s Ned Pevear! Great 
whirligigs! but where did you tumble from, lad? I 
thought you were done for when we lost you on the 
river, and here you are — not done for yet, I hope. 
My eye ! but isn’t this great.” 

And, with tears in his eyes in spite of himself, 
Tom Dickson knelt beside the litter and fairly flung 
his arms about his friend. 

But Ned gave no reply. His strength had gone, 
and even as he sought to raise his hand in welcome 
he swooned away again. 


CHAPTER XI 


“ WHEN I SAY * GO ! ’ GO, EVERY ONE OF YOU ” 

Kind hearts and careful nursing brought Ned 
Pevear around all right, and before two days were 
over he had recovered sufficiently to tell his story. 

Tom Dickson was his constant visitor whenever 
relief from his duties permitted and the two young 
fellows exchanged experiences and swapped stories, 
until their material was well-nigh exhausted. But 
compare notes as they might they inevitably ran up 
against the same baffling query : Why did the Omaha 
merchant kidnap Ned Pevear? 

Ned found that his uncomfortable journey by 
pony, boat and camel instead of being three months 
as he imagined had been but three days; but he de- 
clared that three days packed in a bale of merchan- 
dise was equal to three years of good healthy breath- 
ing and freedom. 

“ That is what we are thinking here, my boy, ,, 
said the American minister who had come to inquire 
into the condition of the “ mysterious visitor ” of 
the legations. “ We have a fortified compound here 
181 


182 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


of nearly six hundred yards square ; but with all these 
yellow gentlemen howling and firing about us, even 
six hundred yards square are as confining and ex- 
asperating a limit as was your bale of silk and fur.” 

“ But we heard that you were all dead, sir,” Ned 
remarked. “ Why, the news came as straight as any- 
thing, and when we were shut up in Tien Tsin fight- 
ing to get out to you, I tell you the news just took 
the heart out of us for anything but revenge.” 

“ Relief is better than revenge, my son,” the 
American minister replied, “ and I am glad to as- 
sure you that this ‘ via Shanghai ’ news is mostly 
lies. But lies hurt almost as much as truth when 
anxious friends are waiting on the telegraph ten 
thousand miles away. But there is no use in disguis- 
ing the truth. We are in desperate straits here unless 
relief comes soon; and we must get word somehow 
to the allies in Tien Tsin that unless relief does come 
speedily, these yellow villains will break through the 
walls or tire us all beyond the strength for resistance; 
and then a thousand foreigners and twice that num- 
ber of native Christians will be at their mercy.” 

“ Here am I,” said Ned, raising himself to look 
the American minister in the eye. “ If you want a 
messenger, take me ! I came to you against my will; 
I will go back — Ell try to get back,” he corrected 
himself — “ by my own will and as a bearer of your 
message.” 


“ WHEN I SAY * GO ! ’ GO ” 183 

The minister grasped the boy’s hand, with moist- 
ened eyes. 

“ You’re a brave young fellow, Pevear,” he said, 
“ but I fear the risk is too great. Our messenger 
must be a Chinaman, to avoid suspicion. But I 
thank you all the same. We all thank you. Now, 
get stronger as soon as possible for we shall need 
the strength of every sturdy comrade to hold these 
wretches at bay until relief comes to us. Five hun- 
dred men are not enough to defend two thousand 
yards of wall against which an army of fanatics are 
hurling shot, shell and cries of vengeance, and trying 
every day to roast us out with fire.” 

“ Is that really all you have to fight off the Chinks, 
Tom — just five hundred men?” Ned queried, after 
the American minister had left them. 

“ That’s about right,” Tom replied. “ You see 
there are about nine hundred foreigners in the com- 
pound — American, British, Japanese, Russian, Ger- 
man, French and Spanish — not counting the native 
Christian refugees. More than three hundred 
of us are women and children, a lot of ’em are 
non-combatants and four hundred are marines, from 
the allied fleets; add to these four hundred and the 
hundred from the legation people, like you and me, 
Ned, good fighters, eh ? and you get not many over 
the five hundred your minister spoke of. But, by 
Jove! sir, you want to remember that those five 


184 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


hundred are more than equal to ten thousand China- 
men — Boxers or Imperials.” 

“ That’s so ! you beat ’em back in great shape, day 
before yesterday when you took me out of hock,” said 
Ned. “ Were you in that sortie, Tom ? ” 

“ No,” the British lad replied. “ Sir Robert 
wouldn’t let me. He kept me in my position on the 
wall. You see, we drove the Chinese Imperials — not 
the Boxers — off from that wall a week ago and 
we’ve held it ever since. If only we had big guns 
we’d hold it forever.” 

“ Why, haven’t you any ? Can’t you get some ? ” 
cried Ned. “ Let’s charge the Chinks and capture a 
few.” 

“ My dear boy, you haven’t learned distances in 
this big city yet,” Tom replied with a laugh. “ If you 
think a couple of hundred marines — about all we can 
spare for a sortie — could charge into the inner city, 
tumble over and drag off a few Cruesots or Krupps 
and get ’em in here in the face of a hundred thousand 
yellow boys, you’re cutting out more work than even 
we are good for. Why, Sir Robert says — ” 

“ Sir Robert?” broke in Ned. “Sir Robert 
who ? ” 

“ Why Sir Robert Hart, of course, the chief of the 
Imperial customs. My chief, you know. I said I 
was ordered to join him and I did.” 

Ned had already heard the story of Tom Dickson’s 


“ WHEN I SAY ‘ GO ! * GO ” 185 

adventures and how he joined Sir Robert Hart in 
Pekin, and he concluded it was even more exciting 
than his own adventures, though not so mysterious. 

Tom had told him how he and the German cap- 
tain had clung to their Chinese disguises so carefully 
that they had gradually worked their way through 
hordes of fanatical Boxers and encampments of Im- 
perial troops until, at last, through many dangers and 
out of many threatening situations, with many hair 
breadth escapes they had finally reached Pekin, and 
stealing through the muddy moat where it swung 
around from the water gate to the legation wall they 
had finally communicated with the sentries on the 
wall and been pulled up by rope in the night, while 
the besiegers were peppering the legationers with 
shot and shell. It was all very exciting, but as Tom 
declared, it was easy enough when you made up your 
mind to do it. 

“ These Chinamen are worse shots than the Span- 
iards were at Santiago,” he declared. And Tom 
knew ; for if you recall his story “ In Defence of the 
Flag,” you will remember that he and Don Martin, 
his American friend, were both at Santiago, on ship 
and shore. “ Those yellow boys yonder ” he added, 
“ haven’t used many of their big guns yet. They’re 
such bloomin’ bad shots, don’t you know, that they 
don’t dare to try more than their light artillery. 
Most of their shots go over us, anyhow, and as they 


i86 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


never hit twice in the same place they can’t do us 
much harm. I’ll bet a cookie that they’ve killed more 
of their own men than they have of ours. They’re 
great at burning things, and that’s where most of 
our danger lies. We have to fight fire most of the 
time. I fancy, old chap, that when you get on your 
legs again, they’ll put you in the fire brigade until 
you get your fighting strength back.” 

Tom’s prophecy proved true. For when, in a few 
days, by careful nursing and proper care, the young 
American “ got on his legs again,” Ned, in answer 
to his demand for active service, was first put into 
the “ bucket brigade ” and with men, women and 
children of every nation and from every rank in life, 
stood in the long line from the well to the wall pass- 
ing buckets to put out the fire that threatened the 
legation houses from the buildings the Chinese had 
fired outside the legation wall. 

This however was extra service, and as soon after 
as his strength had fully returned, Ned Pevear re- 
ported to the British minister who had been made 
commander in chief of the legation forces ” and 
demanded to be counted as an able-bodied man, 
ready for active service. 

The commander turned the lad over, for orders, to 
the secretary of the American legation, who was his 
Chief of Staff, and when Mr. Squiers learned that 
Ned had been with the marines he told him to report 


“ WHEN I SAY ‘ GO ! ’ GO ” 187 

to Captain Myers, of the American marines for or- 
ders. 

Captain Myers, in turn, told the lad to join the 
fortification gang, which was in charge of a brave, 
clear-headed and plucky Methodist missionary, and 
under Mr. Gamewell’s direction, Ned was soon 
working hard at strengthening the legation barri- 
cades with the sand bags made by the women 
helpers from their own curtains and draperies and 
from the very silks and rich stuffs which, on the day 
of the sortie that saved Ned Pevear, had been cap- 
tured from the establishments of the Chinese mer- 
chants in the native city. 

And among the silk sand-bag makers, working 
with true Dutch persistency and neatness, Ned dis- 
covered his girl friend of Manila days, the yung- 
vrouw Verbockhoven, to rescue whom he had risked 
capture and death when he tried to get from Tien 
Tsin to Pekin in Chinese disguise — and failed. 

“ It is a sad waste of precious stuffs, is it not, 
Mynheer Pevear ?” the girl said, as from embroidered 
fabrics, rich enough for the dower of an empress, 
she was cutting and sewing bags intended to be filled 
with sand and flung against a wall. “ But then, 
what would you have? Cheaper material is not at 
hand and this splendid silk costs nothing but an 
effort — and the risk of brave men's lives," she added, 
sadly. 


1 88 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Talking of brave men, yungvrouw,” said Ned, 
“ do you see much of Captain Ullman who first told 
me you were here ? ” 

“Ah! the German captain? Surely/' the girl 
replied. “ He has known my father in Manila and 
here in Pekin, and to him he came direct when he 
and the brave young English lad, your friend, were 
drawn over the wall. Ah, yes! he is brave. And 
true, even though he once fought among the Chi- 
nese. He is now in charge of the guard yonder, in 
the mandarin’s palace which holds the Christian Chi- 
nese. He knows their language so well and is of 
excellent service there, my father says. But ah! 
what a life it is here! Constant shooting and al- 
ways dread of fire by day and by night. Do you not 
think that speedily we may be relieved, Mynheer 
Pevear ? ” 

“ The allies are coming, sure,” Ned replied. 
“ They have Tien Tsin; soon they will have the 
men, and I know they’ll fight their way through 
though a million Boxers stood in the path.” 

“ Ach, so ! They are coming,” the Dutch girl 
acknowledged. “ But when ? Soon we shall be 
starved so that we can fight no more. And what 
then ? And I like not steaks of horse flesh and stew 
of mule, do you ? ” 

“ A soldier must call all things good that go for 
food, from pate de fois gras to saddle straps,” Ned 


“ WHEN I SAY 4 GO ! ’ GO ” 


189 


replied with a laugh. “ But saddle straps would be 
but poor eating for young ladies/' he added. “ I 
will see to it that I eat them before you do.” 

“ Nay, nay, good friend,” the girl replied with 
spirit. “We women are to be soldiers, too, here, 
of some sort, and what you who defend us eat we 
surely can take without grumbling. There! I have 
sewn a dozen great bags; and here are yet more 
that Mam’selle Therese has made. Take them for 
us to the sand pile, Mynheer Pevear, since that is 
your duty and we will have more ready ere long.” 

And Ned with his burden of beautiful stuffs made 
into bags saluted the ladies and hurried to the sand 
heaps near the walls where Chinese converts and 
refugees were filling the bags with sand and carry- 
ing them as additional defences to the endangered 
wall, which was thus padded out from three feet of 
masonry to five of stone and silk and sand. 

That day the Chinese besiegers increased their 
artillery fire and kept it up so vigorously and with 
such improved marksmanship that, twice, the de- 
fenders were driven from the wall, and when they 
returned, they saw with dismay that the Chinese in 
force had rushed the outlying defences and held a 
barricade that commanded the legation wall. 

A council of war was held. 

44 Ah ! if we only had cannon,” said the British 
minister, 44 we could hold that barricade ourselves. 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


190 

Not having them we must set our sharpshooters to 
work, or — ” 

“ Or capture the barricade,” Captain Myers 
cried. “ Have I your excellency’s permission to at- 
tempt it ? ” 

“ At a sacrifice of lives needed for our defence 
here?” queried the commander. “I fear, Captain, 
it will be attempted at too great a cost. But, if it 
must be tried — ” he paused. 

“ It must, sir,” the plucky captain of marines said, 
completing the minister’s sentence. “ I will risk but 
few lives, sir. If you will support my charge I’ll call 
for volunteers among my marines and rush ’em off.” 

Consent was given, reluctantly, but as a forlorn 
hope, and Captain Myers was soon among his men. 

The whole sixty volunteered. And Ned Pevear 
was one of them. 

“ Support me from the wall,” was Captain Myers’s 
last word to his fellow defenders, as he marshalled 
his men at the South Gate. 

Sixty determined men stood behind the gate. It 
looked an insignificant force to face a host. 

“ Boys,” the captain said, “ that barricade must be 
cleared, or our defences are in danger. When I say 
4 go ! ’ go, every one of you ! Over there in the Brit- 
ish legation three hundred women and children are 
waiting and praying for you and your success. Re- 
member, their lives depend upon our success. For, 


“ WHEN I SAY ‘GOP GO 


as surely as you stand here, if we shirk or if we 
fail, not only our lives but theirs are lost. And you 
know what that means when these Chinese fiends 
lay hands upon them. Now then ! for the women and 
children ! Are you ready ? Go ! ” 

The gate swung open and go these gallant sixty 
did ! Out through the gate, on through the smoking 
ruins of burning buildings, on, in a gallant dash, the 
forlorn hope charged with shout and yell and rifle 
shot. 

The Chinaman has never yet stood before the 
American charge, even when protected by barricade 
or wall. As the marines swept on, a few shots from 
the barricade greeted them, but the fire was un- 
certain. 

In the forefront of the charge, yelling as he had 
yelled with such fear-compelling results when he had 
charged the unstable Filipinos when Lawton urged 
him on, raced Ned Pevear, his eye aflame with the 
enthusiasm of effort, his heart bent upon the defence 
of the women in the compound — especially the 
yungvrouw Lizbet. 

Up to the barricade, through it, over it, anyway 
to circumvent it the handful of Americans cleared 
and captured it, while before them, like a flock of 
frightened sheep, the Chinese mob that had held 
the barricade ran for dear life. 

The path of retreat was, however, strewn with 


192 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


those who had fallen in the charge, victim of bayonet, 
sword and rifle shot. 

“ No quarter ! ” was the word passed among the 
grimly determined marines; for they knew from ex- 
perience and a study of Chinese character that 
leniency is esteemed weakness by those sentiment- 
lacking Mongolians and failure to kill was consid- 
ered fear. 

But Ned was not yet brought up to what he called 
the “ cold blood” standard; to deliberately shoot or 
cut down a “ kotowing ” Chinaman pleading for 
mercy was more than he was hardened to. But 
when he saw a man thus spared by him deliberately 
plunge a spear into Captain Myers, the brave leader 
of the charge, his rage was a real and righteous one 
and, as the captain fell, Ned sprang at the assassin 
with loaded pistol. 

But before he could act as the avenger another 
had been before him, and as one wounded Chinaman 
shot down the other and revenged the cowardly 
spear-thrust Ned gave a mingled cry of approval, 
balked vengeance and surprise as in the wounded 
Chinaman who had thus summarily punished the 
Boxer assassin, he recognized his old acquaintance, 
the Omaha merchant. 

Instinctively he turned his levelled pistol away 
from this man who had been — he was not sure 
whether friend or foe, benefactor or betrayer. He 


“ WHEN I SAY ‘ GO ! ’ GO ” 


i93 


knelt beside the wounded man, one eye fixed on the 
smiling face, the other looking cautiously and sus- 
piciously at the still smoking revolver. 

“ Great Scott, man ! ” he cried, “ Is it you ? and 
here, fighting in the Boxer ranks? I don’t know 
whether to kill you or claim you.” 

“ Claim me as a friend, O my brother,” said the 
wounded merchant. “ I am with the Boxers, but not 
of them. I sought for parley at your gates and 
entrance as a friend, and behold! I was caught in 
your charge and the swift retreat and am hurt by 
the guns of my friends and brothers — the Ameri- 
cans.” 

“ Um ! ” said Ned, still suspicious and hesitating. 
“ Nice sort of a friend you are, to kidnap and hustle 
me away from my own people and rush me like a 
bale of goods into this hot bed of Boxer power and 
villainy. No thanks to you, I am alive; and I’m not 
sure but you should die as a traitor. Give me your 
pistol. I think I’ll carry you back as a prisoner and 
let someone else be judge and jury. I’m not up to 
that, I reckon.” 

“ To you I will trust myself, O friend,” the mer- 
chant replied. “ I can explain all ; but see, I am hurt 
in the leg; who will bear me into the allied camp? ” 

“ I’ll see to that,” Ned replied, though he ques- 
tioned his ability to pick up this portly Chinaman and 
bear him alone into the compound. “ Hullo ! Mitch- 


i 9 4 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


ell ! ” he cried, as one of the gunners of the New- 
ark came back from the victorious charge. “ Eve got 
a find here. Will you help me get him into camp.” 

“ Oh ! it’s you, young ’un, eh ? ” gunner Mitchell 
replied. “ What are you trying to do — save that 
bloody Chink’s miserable life? Better put an end to 
it.” 

“ No, no,” Ned replied, pushing aside the threat- 
ening bayonet. “ He knows too much to kill just 
now, and he saved my life twice, although he did 
play a low-down trick on me. I’ve got to investigate 
him. He’s an American Chinaman and I want to 
get him inside the walls where I can figure his case 
out. Will you help me? ” 

“ O, I suppose so,” the gunner agreed with a 
grumble; “ though hanged if I see what’s the good. 
Here come the litter bearers for the captain and our 
other wounded boys. It’s lucky there are so few of 
them; if the cap’n dies it’ll take more Chinks than 
are in China to pay for his loss.” 

“ But this man shot down the fellow who speared 
Cap’n Myers,” Ned explained, “ and he may be all 
right. Anyway, he’s right enough not to kill just 
yet.” 

Then with the gunner’s help he lifted the Omaha 
merchant from the ground and the two, borrowing a 
vacant litter bore the “ mystery,” as Ned called him, 
through the gates, where, once again, an enthusiastic 


“ WHEN I SAY * GO ! ’ GO 


i95 


and welcoming throng hailed the return of the vic- 
torious marines, and mourned over the wounded 
captain whose valor had saved them from Chinese 
vengeance. 

“ I bagged a pile of Chinese powder, lad,” the 
gunner told Ned as they returned from the charge. 
“ I’ll send some of our Christian refugees out for 
it. It’s good for big guns, if we only had one. I 
wish I had corralled a Chinese piece, but they hadn’t 
mounted any on the barricade ; we were too quick for 
them.” 

“ Will my American friends accept my help ? ” 
asked the wounded man on the litter “ I know of an 
old cannon hid away in the Concession and if it is 
still there, it may be made of use by American skill.” 

“ You do ! ” exclaimed the gunner. “ By George! 
Chinky, if you’ll roust that out for me I’ll help save 
your life from the ferocious chap here that captured 
you. Trot him in, young ’un. I want to find that 

„„„„ ** 
gun. 

Then they entered the acclaiming compound, and 
shared the merited plaudits for the heroes who had 
driven off a host. 

“ My hat ! old man,” cried Tom Dickson, enthu- 
siastically. “ Why didn’t I have a chance at that 
charge, too? There’s more glory in that than sni- 
ping at bloomin’ Chinamen from the top of a wall. 
Great work that was. We can hold that barricade 


196 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


clear now, don’t you know, for our rifles will reach as 
far as any of their cannon and they won’t dare to 
mount ’em there while we’ve got the rifle range and 
can pot ’em whenever they try to sneak in.” 

“ Ah ! but it is brave that you are, mynheer,” the 
pretty yungvrouw Verbockhoven said, as, with both 
hands extended, she greeted the returning hero. “ It 
is proud we are of our Americans — and of you,” she 
said with an old-time courtesy. “ My father says it 
was the bravest action of the siege.” 

“No braver than the pluck and courage of you 
girls and women,” Ned replied. “ A charge is ex- 
citing, but it’s easy where everyone rushes together 
and the excitement braces you up. But there’s no 
excitement in making sand bags and wondering all 
the time what’s happening outside the walls. I tell 
you it takes more pluck to be patient and brave as 
you are, than to snipe Chinamen or swing out into a 
charge. Place aux dames! say I.” 

And Tom Dickson, listening to his friend, saluted 
the young Dutch girl and slapped Ned on the back. 

“ Right you are, old chap,” he cried; “ right you 
are, every time.” 

Then Ned told about his capture of the Omaha 
merchant — “ if it was a capture,” he said; “ hanged 
if I know what to make of him.” 

“ I’d make mince meat of him if I were you, the 
sneaking renegade,” cried Tom vindictively. 


“ WHEN I SAY * GO ! ’ GO 


197 


“ I don’t know as I want to,” Ned said reflectively. 
“ He might have done that to me more than once 
and he didn’t. I’m going to get the truth out of him, 
sometime. He may be just another Captain Ullman, 
Tom. We thought he was a renegade, too, you 
know, and now we know he’s — ” 

“ Sir Robert’s compliments, sir,” an English blue 
jacket broke in, as he hailed Tom Dickson with a 
salute. “ He says there’s a man in the hospital ask- 
ing for you; badly wounded, sir. You’re to go at 
once.” 

“ By Jove ! not one of our custom’s men, I hope,” 
said Tom. “ Who is it, messenger? Do you know? ” 

“ It’s that German captain who came in with you, 
sir,” the jackie replied; “ he’s been over to the palace, 
you know, protecting the Christian Chinkies.” 

“ Ullman ! ” exclaimed both the English and 
American boys. 

“ My hat ! but that’s too bad,” cried Tom. “ Come 
over with me and see what’s the matter, Ned. Poor 
old Ullman.” 

And making their adieus to the anxious Dutch 
girl the two lads rushed to the hospital. 


CHAPTER XII 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 

They found the German captain in the hospital, 
badly though not dangerously' wounded. He had 
been struck down, so the sisters explained, as he 
ran along the wall to try to prevent a Norwegian 
who had gone crazy from leaping the wall. But the 
Chinese bullet had met the German before he could 
stay the Norwegian, and even as the German fell 
wounded the insane refugee had leaped from the 
wall. 

“ He was one of our engineers, this Norwegian,” 
Captain Ullman exclaimed as Tom Dickson came to 
his cot, “ and he is not too crazy to be the fool ; he 
knows why the Chinese shots do us not much of the 
damage — that they fire too high — and if he once tells 
them the truth they will find the more dangerous 
range. He must be stopped, Herr Tom, if we would 
be safe from bombardment here; he must — ach, him- 
mel! who is it with you? Not mein lieber Ned — 
not the Herr Pevear? No, it is? So! Art risen from 
the dead then, my friend? How came you here?” 

Ned grasped his old time captive’s hands and 
briefly told his story, explaining why he had not yet 
198 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 199 

been able to hunt Ullman out at the palace on the 
Wu and expressing his sorrow at his wound. 

“ Ach, this ? It is nothing, nothing, believe me, if 
but I can stop that crazy Norwegian’s raving. But 
how — how ? ” 

“ Why, Cap’n,” said Ned with a laugh, inclined 
to brighten up the German’s spirits, “ I don’t see but 
Tom or I will have to drop over and visit the Chin- 
Chins in their line. We’ve done it you know — as 
Chinamen.” 

But the matter was too vital for a joke and the 
captain did not appreciate the pleasantry. He took 
Ned’s remark seriously. 

“ Ah, so ” he mused, “ but how ; but how, Herr 
Ned ? If you were but dumb now ! But your tongue 
will ever get the best of your disguises; and even 
Herr Tom here is of little value in such a matter 
unless I be with him.” 

Tom laughed in his turn. The German’s egotism 
was too unconscious to do more than amuse. 

“ I fancy we’ll have to let the matter go as it is, 
Cap’n,” he said. “ One crazy man over the wall is 
enough; if Ned or I should go there’d just be one 
or two more crazy fellows to be anxious about. Let 
things stay as they are; we shall see what we shall 
see.” 

“ Yes, but what shall you see, my friend ? ” the 
German replied. “ You shall see slaughter and cap- 


200 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


ture by these yellow fiends, whom I know only too 
well. And what have we here to repel them? Noth- 
ing — simply nothing, I say. Only one Colt and one 
Nordenfelt; but what are two guns against the Chi- 
nese armament. And to-day they have trained a new 
great gun on the Wu from the Imperial wall. Thus 
are we surrounded and nothing can be done. ,, 

“ On the Imperial wall, eh? ” cried Ned, remem- 
bering the American gunner’s wish and the Omaha 
merchant’s suggestion. “ Good-by, Cap’n Ullman. I 
want to look into that. Get better, quick. I’ll see 
you again.” 

He was speedily running across the compound to 
where his Chinese friend was housed in the Ameri- 
can legation. 

“ How are you feeling? ” Ned inquired. 

“ Better, much better, thanks to you, O brother,” 
the American Chinaman replied. “ I shall walk with 
ease to-morrow, I know it.” 

“ But I want you to-day,” declared Ned. “ If we 
got you into a ’rickshaw, could you ride over to that 
place where you said there was an old gun, do you 
think?” 

“ And why not? I will. Try me,” the China- 
man replied. 

Ned sought the marine barracks and hauled Mitch- 
ell the gunner away from his infrequent siesta. 
He told the gunner of the Omaha merchant’s inclina- 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 201 


tion, and before long, they were trundling a confis- 
cated jinricksha to the legation doors, and lifting 
their Chinese friend within the vehicle, followed 
his direction and came at last to the junk shop near 
the yamen. 

“ It was here last year,” the merchant said, “ as I 
was searching for curios to send to my American 
customers, that I came upon an old cannon of Eng- 
glish make. Some time, thought I, there may be a 
customer for this and I bade the junk merchant se- 
crete it for me. Look you, O friends, under yonder 
pile of rubbish, beneath that old wheel, and that 
pile of sand. That's it; there is the breach; unearth 
it and see if I spoke not the truth.” 

He certainly did. Beneath the rubbish and sand, 
Ned and the gunner unearthed and soon dragged to 
sight an old breach-loading cannon of English make; 
i860 was the mark upon it, and it looked odd 
enough to those used to modern guns of advanced 
pattern. 

“ Kind of ancient history, eh lad?” the gunner 
said. “ Well, as the feller says in the play ‘ it ain’t 
as big as a house or as wide as a barn door, but it’ll 
do.’ ” 

“ Of course it will,” said Ned, “ and if it won’t 
you can make it do,” he added with perfect faith in 
American ability and ingenuity. “ And it’s thanks 
to our friend Mr. Wong Lee, eh, Mitchell?” — this 


202 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


with a nod toward the Omaha merchant — “ if it 
hadn’t been for him we shouldn’t have had even this 
historic relic. ” 

“ Right you are, lad. Wong, put it there ! ” and 
the marine extended a hand to the Chinaman. 
“ You’re a white man even if you are yellow. You 
did us proud. And now, if you’ll just stay where you 
are while Ned and I run this anty diluvian aboard 
your ’rickshaw, we’ll have it fixed in a jiffy.” 

With the help of Ned and a half dozen Chinese 
“ converts ” the gun was hoisted aboard the ’rick- 
shaw and trundled over to the American legation. 
There, Mitchell the gunner with the help of other 
artillerists tinkered away upon it and its “ interna- 
tional ” mount and finally produced an effective and 
practical addition to the small armament of the lega- 
tions. And the boys christened her “ Betsey.” 

Meantime, Ned and Tom had consulted about 
Captain Ullman’s fear as to the revelations of the 
escaped Norwegian lunatic. Tom was still inclined 
to treat it as something that could not be remedied 
while Ned feared that the German’s anxiety was 
well founded. 

“ Don’t be afraid, Ned,” Tom Dickson declared. 
“ No white man could get among those Boxers and 
live. That Norwegian is dead, I’ll bet on that.” 

“ But did you hear what Mr. Squiers reported ? ” 
queried Ned. “ He says the firing of the Chinese is 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 203 

more accurate, and as you saw for yourself seven 
shells from the Chinese guns fell inside our walls 
to-day. They’ve got our range, I tell you.” 

“ All right old chap, and we’ve got their’s,” re- 
plied Tom. “ You wait till Mitchell gets your 
‘ Betsey ’ trained on them. She kicks like a mule, 
but she’s knocked down that barricade in the college 
grounds already, and to-morrow Mitchell’s going to 
train her on that big gun on the Imperial wall. We’ll 
give ’em as good as they send. ‘ Betsey ’ forever ! ” 

Ned was still unconvinced, but just then came the 
call “turn out ! turn out, all,” and knowing that some- 
thing was afoot, both lads rushed to their quarters. 

“ To the barricades! ” came the order; “ the Chi- 
nese have undermined Morrison’s. Rally at the 
bridge and give ’em a dose if they come through.” 

Just then, the house which Dr. Morrison, the Eng- 
lish correspondent, occupied within the French le- 
gation burst into flames, and as the women’s bucket 
brigade lined up for duty, Tom sprang to his station 
on the wall, while Ned rallied with the marines on 
the bridge across the moat near the German lega- 
tion. 

The Germans were there in force, but when a mob 
of Boxer besiegers under cover of the fire made a 
rush into the walled street back of the German lega- 
tion, the German defenders let them pass without 
beating them back knowing well that the Americans 


204 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

on the bridge would give the assailants a warm re- 
ception. 

Up the street came the Chinese rush, with flags 
and guns and spears yelling “ kill ! kill ! death to the 
foreign devils ! ” They were within the compound 
at last. 

But the American marines were ready for them. 
Their rifles on the moat poured out a sharp de- 
fiance and under the heavy and unexpected fire the 
Chinese wavered. Across the moat and into the 
street leaped certain of the marines, Ned Pevear 
among them and as the enemy turned in flight, Ned 
saw with delight that the Germans who had re- 
mained apparently inactive had quietly closed about 
the assailants and practically cut off their retreat. 

“ Good work! we’ve trapped ’em!” cried Ned, 
working his gun with energy and effect. A hundred, 
at least, of the Boxers were killed and wounded in 
the German-American trap and when the remnant 
broke through the barricades in wild confusion Ned, 
with his eye on a Boxer flag leaped over, too, with 
certain of the Germans, bound to add that flag to his 
trophies of war. 

Alas ! his excitement got the better of his caution ; 
for when his German comrades, called away by the 
bugle, fell back into the compound, Ned still dashed 
ahead; in an instant he had closed upon the flag 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 205 

bearer, cut him down, and with the captured banner 
leaped back for the wall and safety. 

It was too late; the barricade was closed; the de- 
fenders on bridge and street had hurried back to 
the wall and before Ned could make a break for the 
gate on Legation street a fresh force of besiegers had 
rallied to the support of the defeated assailants and 
once again Ned Pevear was a prisoner in the hands 
of the Chinese. 

“ Well ! I got the flag, anyhow,” he said, joy over 
his triumph mingling with an acknowledgment of his 
folly in thus letting his enthusiasm get the better of 
his discretion, and backing up against the wall he 
prepared to die fighting, like a Yankee marine. 

With yells and cries of vengeance the Boxers 
rushed against the Yankee lad at bay; but the Chi- 
nese who immediately surrounded the American 
turned upon the mob with stern commands and 
levelled guns, forcing them away from their intended 
victim, while their leader, an officer in uniform, held 
out his hands in unmistakable pantomime, emphasiz- 
ing his actions with words of command which Ned 
could not fail to understand — a summons to sur- 
render. 

Then the lad recognized the fact that Imperial 
soldiers stood between him and the bloodthirsty mob 
and that he might yield himself with some hope of 


206 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


decent treatment to the soldiers of the emperor and 
not to the revengeful Boxers. 

With a smile and a bow Ned handed his gun and 
his captured banner to the Imperial officer. 

“ Take them; the game’s your’s,” he said, and, to 
his surprise, the smiling Chinaman, as he handed the 
trophies to his orderly replied in words which 
sounded to Ned’s ears like an attempt at the Ger- 
man “ Ja wohl; sehr gut.” 

The boy’s eye brightened. 

“ Sprechen sie Deutsch? ” he queried. 

“ Ja! ” replied the officer in a Chinese attempt at 
German that was even funnier than the American’s 
essay. 

“ Then, for heaven’s sake ! keep me out of those 
Boxers’ hands,” cried Ned, in “ American,” yielding 
himself prisoner and pointing at the yelling mob 
beyond the Imperial line. “ Treat me like a soldier 
and I’ll not object.” 

The movement rather than the words were under- 
stood, and encircled by a cordon of soldiers and fol- 
lowed by a hooting, clamorous crowd, Ned Pevear 
was borne away from the Chinese wall and up the 
Customs street to the gate of the Tartar or Imperial 
city — a prisoner once more. 

Even to the gate the mob pursued and pressed 
upon the Imperials, shouting for Ned’s blood; but 
his guard hurried the lad through in safety, and 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 207 

the Chinese officer assured Ned that he was under 
orders from the Tsung li Yamen, or Foreign office, 
to bring the first captured foreigner before them for 
examination, unharmed and instantly. 

Ned gathered from the queer snatches of Ger- 
man which he could extract from the officer’s talk 
that he had been one of the Chinese officers drilled 
under Major Reitzenstein, the German military ex- 
pert who had trained the Imperial troops, and that 
he and some of the foreign-drilled Chinamen wished 
to conduct the conflict under the rules of war; but 
the hatred of foreigners, he explained, was too over- 
powering, because the most of the Imperial troops 
sided with the rebellious Boxers who were now al- 
most in control of affairs in Pekin. And so at last 
they came to the office of the Tsung li Yamen. 

But the officials who made up the Chinese Foreign 
office were not in the Yamen. Instead, the prisoner 
was hurried into the Imperial city and delivered 
finally at Prince Tuan’s palace where, so the officer 
who had him in charge, assured him, the Imperial 
three, who were just then “ running things ” in 
China were in consultation — Prince Tuan, the Man- 
chu chief, and the two generals Tung Fu Hsiang and 
Jung Lu. 

And there the American lad was ushered into the 
presence of the chiefs of the great revolt. 

“ Demand to see Prince Ching,” the friendly offi- 


208 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


cer who had captured him had advised him. “ He 
is your only hope.” 

Prince Tuan’s palace was more like the head- 
quarters of a great army then a private residence. 
Soldiers swarmed about it; officers and messengers 
were constantly coming and going and over it floated 
the great imperial banner of the dragon. 

At once the stern, imperious and relentless Man- 
chu, Tuan, the organizer and backbone of the Boxer 
revolt, questioned the prisoner in a torrent of un- 
recognizable and mysterious words to which Ned 
could only shake his head with as courteous a smile 
as he could command and reply in one of his few 
pidgin English phrases. 

“ No b’long my pidgin,” he said (that is to say, 
politics are not my business. ) 

With an impatient toss of the head, the prince 
turned to those about him in inquiry. One from the 
throng explained the lad’s answer and at a com- 
mand from the prince stepped forward as interpreter. 

“ You are a foreign soldier — an American? ” the 
interpreter queried. 

“ Yes, of the marines,” Ned answered. 

“ And what, the great prince asks, are you doing 
here in our China ? ” 

“ Obeying orders,” Ned replied. 

“ You are a captive, taken in battle. Why should 
not the great prince at once order your death ? ” 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 209 

“ Because he is a soldier, and soldiers who fight 
soldiers know how to treat captives generously,” the 
lad replied. 

“ But that is no soldier who comes here to rob and 
slay; such are but dogs and deserve the death of 
dogs.” 

“ Are our ministers, recognized by your emperor 
and promised his protection, dogs?” Ned boldly 
demanded. “ I am of the American minister’s guard 
and cannot be punished by you. I demand to see the 
prince Ching.” 

Prince Tuan grew furious at this reply, which 
seemed to belittle his authority. He would have or- 
dered the bold young American to instant death, but 
his colleague, the more politic general Jung Lu, re- 
strained him with courteous but calmer words. 

“ And we would give your chief the minister and 
those of other nations our protection,” the prince 
said through the interpreter, schooling himself to 
milder speech ; “ will you, his warrior and our cap- 
tive, bear our message to your minister and return 
here with his answer ? ” 

“ Have I the protection of the prince through the 
mob who would have my blood, or do I go alone ? ” 
Ned inquired. 

“ The great prince promises you sufficient escort. 
If he spares your life this day will you promise faith- 
fully to take his message and bear the answer back ? ” 


210 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ And after the answer what — death ? ” queried 
the American. 

“ Upon the reply of your minister depends your 
fate,” the interpreter declared. “ It is for you to see 
that the foreigners agree to the counsels of the 
prince.” 

“ I will take your message,” Ned replied. 

“And return the answer?” 

“And if I do not?” 

“ Wherever you are, wherever you may be, how- 
ever you may think yourself free from danger the se- 
cret ways of the Brethren of the Fist shall find you, 
the swift vengeance of the Fist shall punish you.” 

This certainly had not a pleasant sound, but Ned 
Pevear could enter as bold a defiance as the Boxers 
could frame a menace. 

“ The American needs no threat to hold him to his 
promise,” he declared bravely. “ What I promise I 
promise, and that I will do. Give me the letter to the 
ministers, and I will return you their answer.” 

“ It is well. Let the foreigner be held as message 
bearer. We will send the letters by him and 
speedily.” 

Thus the decision of “ the triumvirate ” was ren- 
dered, and Ned waited their will, held as a prisoner, 
but also as messenger, regaled with tea and other 
Chinese concoctions; and, careless as to the future 
so long as he escaped from his present “scrape,” 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 21 1 


he bided his time, which must also be that of the 
despotic Three, in the quadruple city of Pekin — the 
capital of the great empire. 

At last the message came. It found Ned deep in 
attempted conversation with the foreign drilled offi- 
cer who had been alike his captor and his guard. 
Where neither one knew German well, and each ap- 
proached the language from vastly different environ- 
ments conversation at best was largely a matter of 
signs that helped out unintelligible words; but Ned, 
from long experience with other tongues, was quick 
to understand actions, and an untranslatable word 
was rendered intelligible by the sign that is common 
to all languages. Even as the message came to him, 
Ned was listening to the semi-indifferent, semi-as- 
sertive declaration of the foreign drilled Chinese sol- 
dier ; and this was what he made his words to mean : 

“ What does that matter ? ” the officer replied, an- 
swering Ned’s query as to how it was possible for 
Chinese troops only partially supplied with modern 
arms to stand against the world and its up-to-date 
armaments. “ If it comes to real fighting — this 
Boxer business is not yet the real flame of war, you 
know — the style or sort of arms they use will make 
no difference to our people. Guns or spears, the 
choice is as nothing then ; they will do their duty with 
whatever weapon they have in hand. Suppose Eu- 
rope — suppose what you call the world is ahead of 


212 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


us in military drill and weapons, we shall always be 
ahead in fighting material. If you kill a hundred 
thousand of us, we have another hundred thousand 
ready. What are a million men dead? They do 
not mean defeat for us who have other millions 
to draw upon. But let us kill ten thousand of you 
foreigners in battle and what you falsely call the 
civilized world will be in mourning. If we kill a 
hundred thousand your boasted Powers will have to 
give up business and sue to us for peace.” 

This was what Ned gathered from the China- 
man’s halting German. It set him thinking and 
would have called out his vigorous denial had not a 
palace officer and the interpreter just then come to 
him with the message from the prince and his gen- 
erals. 

“ The foreigner is to take this at once to the 
ministers in the Chiao-min-Hsiang (Legation street) 
and return with their answer as soon as given. He 
will have escort to the barricades and a return escort 
with his answer, but let him swear by the tombs of 
his ancestors that he will go and come even as he 
promised.” 

“An American need take no oath to keep his 
word,” Ned declared. “ What he has promised that 
he will do. See ! I am ready.” 

The palace officer was forced to be satisfied with 
his assurance, and soon Ned was taking his way 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 213 


back to the legations, escorted by the very soldiers 
who had captured him and out of whose hands he 
had not expected to come alive. 

With some difficulty Ned succeeded in having the 
truce sign recognized — the white board checkered 
with Chinese characters displayed on the Imperial 
side of the North Bridge. The allied defenders of 
the legations had not much confidence in these so- 
called truce signs of the treacherous enemy; but 
Ned’s presence beside the truce bearer finally secured 
attention and admission and he was soon through the 
wall and welcomed within the compound as one re- 
turned from the dead. 

In the beautiful palace which was occupied by the 
British legation and which served in the siege as 
chief safety point and headquarters, Ned reported 
to the commander and finally to the ministers. 

In solemn conference they read the letter he 
brought them. It was a formidable looking docu- 
ment couched in the formal language of official cor- 
respondence and when duly translated this was what 
it amounted to : It regretted that the ministers and 
their guards denied courteous attention and reply 
to the white board of truce displayed at the North 
Bridge. The writers wished only well to the minis- 
ters and were glad to know that the ministers and 
their families were well. It was their desire and 
intention, in the name of the Emperor, to protect 


214 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


the legations from the rage of the revolted Boxers 
who were as obnoxious to the Emperor and the 
Foreign office, as to the legations, and it promised, 
again in the name of the Emperor, to afford abso- 
lute protection to the ministers of the Foreign Pow- 
ers if they would come out from the besieged lega- 
tions which lay now at the mercy of the revengeful 
Boxers and trust in the Emperor. Let the minis- 
ters, their staffs and their families come out from 
Legation street by tens and without arms and they 
would be conducted to the well-guarded offices of 
the Tsung li Yamen or Foreign office and there cared 
for. But if they refused this and remained within 
the legation compound the writers could not long 
withhold the destroying rage of the rebellious and 
much regretted Boxers. 

And this letter was simply signed “ Prince Ching 
and others/' 

The summons was dismissed with but little debate 
as untrustworthy. The Diplomatic Corps mewed 
up in the legation compound remembered altogether 
too vividly the murder of their colleague, the Ger- 
man minister, as he proceeded, under Chinese escort, 
to make terms with the Foreign office. That narrow 
ally near the Tsung li Yamen where he fell in death 
was too certain a road to destruction to be desired 
by any foreigner. 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 215 


And when they questioned Ned the messenger he 
returned an equally skeptical reply. 

“ Does it say that Prince Ching signed that letter, 
gentlemen ? ” he queried. “ It is a lie. Prince Ching 
was not in the palace. He will have nothing to do 
with affairs that are managed by that bloodthirsty 
Prince Tuan and his advisers. I appealed to him 
for protection and they denied my appeal, saying 
Prince Ching was far away. He did not sign that 
paper. Tuan the assassin means to bring you out by 
tens and murder you. Of that I am certain, and this 
letter promises no protection to any in the legations 
save the ministers, their staffs and families. The 
letter is a lie, I say. It is not from Prince Ching 
and it is only a decoy to lead you all to death.” 

So the ministers believed, and they decided to pay 
no attention to the offer made them. 

“ But I must take back your answer, gentlemen,” 
said Ned. “ Will you prepare it for me and send 
me back ? ” 

“ Send you back ? you, lad ? Why, they will mur- 
der you.” 

“ But I promised to return with your reply, gentle- 
men, and I must keep my word,” the American de- 
clared. 

“ It is foolishness; it is nonsense; it means your 
death.” 


2l6 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Ned shrugged his shoulders. 

“ It may, gentlemen, but it must be done, ,, he 
said. “A promise is a promise, and surely you 
would not have me break faith even with these yel- 
low heathens. How will they regard one who comes 
under a solemn promise, as I did, and then breaks his 
word? Not I alone, gentlemen, but you, too, will 
suffer. With or without your consent I must go back 
to those who sent me.” 

“ I believe the lad is right,” said Sir Robert Hart, 
the English mandarin and Inspector of Customs. “ I 
honor him for his integrity. Let us not be party to a 
fraud. Besides, I am of the impression that the 
Tsung li Yamen or the leaders of this revolt have 
secret tidings of the coming of the relief forces and 
seek either to ingratiate themselves with the Powers 
by seeming to protect us or else to murder us all as 
this messenger believes and then defy the world. Let 
us send the lad back with a letter of courteous refusal, 
but with our stern assurance that any harm to the 
bearer of our message shall be doubly and more 
than doubly revenged upon those who do him ill.” 

“ Let us send the answer as Sir Robert advises, 
but let some other messenger bear it — one of the 
Christian Chinamen in the palace on the Wu,” one 
of the council suggested. 

“No one but I can go, sir,” Ned declared em- 


WHAT HAPPENED AT THE BRIDGE 217 


phatically. “ I said I would, and with or without 
your consent, I shall go.” 

“ It is a noble resolve, young man,” Sir Robert 
said, extending his hand to the American. “ Let 
him bear our reply, gentlemen. His honesty will be 
an object lesson that these shrewd but unscrupulous 
foemen of ours may heed and honor. We must 
keep faith even with our enemies.” 

And, at last, reluctantly, the council yielded to 
Ned’s decision and prepared the letter for the Ameri- 
can to take back as he had promised to “ Prince 
Ching and others.” 


CHAPTER XIII 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 

But if the council of ministers decided upon Ned’s 
return as messenger, public opinion within the com- 
pound was certainly against it. 

“ Go back to those bloomin’ butchers ? not much, 
Ned,” declared Tom Dickson, hotly. “ Not if I have 
to knock you down and tie you to keep you here. A 
promise is a promise, but one made under compul- 
sion is not to be held as binding. Is not that so, 
Mynheer Verbockhoven? ” 

The deliberate and conservative Dutchman 
clasped his hands judicially over his capacious 
stomach. 

“ It is a question to be debated, my son — ” he 
began slowly, but his daughter broke in upon his 
words, an unusual act for so obedient and filial a 
young lady. 

“ No, no, my father!” the yungvrouw declared, 
“ there can be no debate in this. You surely cannot 
advise our brave Mynheer Ned — Mynheer Pevear,” 
she corrected herself, “ to walk straightway into the 
hands of those murdering Chinamen. He goes to 
218 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 219 

death, my father. I know he does.” And her voice 
trembled perceptibly, her bright eyes filled with tears. 

“ Would you have me prove myself a liar, yung- 
vrouw?” demanded Ned. “ Surely, no.” 

And the yungvrouw Liz bet was silent. 

But the Omaha merchant said “ My brother is a 
valiant and truth-loving youth. But is there aught 
against one friend acting for another? I brought 
you into Pekin whither you wished to come. Stay 
you here. See, I am ready. I will bear the answer 
from the ministers, and spare my young brother.” 

The American gave both hands to the Chinaman 
in appreciation of his friendship. 

“ Is that according to Confucius ? ” he asked with 
a smile. 

“ Our great teacher once said,” replied the 
Omaha merchant, “ that ‘ the cautious cannot err/ 
I am cautious in this case, and what I offer to do I 
do cautiously. But I know it is right.” 

“ And therefore you do not err? ” said Ned. 

The Dutchman nodded his head in approval of 
the Chinaman’s resolve, while even his daughter’s 
sad face lighted up with a smile. 

“ Mr. Wong, you’re a brick,” said Tom, following 
Ned’s action and shaking hands with the merchant. 

But the American was not to be moved. 

“ Somebody told me another of your Chinese say- 
ings once,” he said to the Omaha merchant. “ It 


220 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


went something like this ‘ who knows how to lie 
knows neither how to love nor respect his parents.' 
My father has often told me that to lie is cowardice 
and that the truth is courage. I can’t go back on my 
training, good people. I said I would bring the an- 
swer back, and I must. That’s all there is about it.” 

It seemed so, truly. Neither arguments, pleas nor 
threats could change Ned Pevear’s determination to 
stick to his promise, and before the next day had 
grown to noon he passed out of the gate of the com- 
pound, and signalling the Imperial soldiers who held 
the devastated space beyond the Wu he gave himself 
into the hands of the German speaking Chinese offi- 
cer who had been alike his captor and his escort. 

And soon he stood again within the confines of 
Prince Tuan’s Palace. 

“ Deliver your letter only to Prince Ching,” the 
shrewd Omaha merchant had advised the lad, and 
through the interpreter Ned replied to the Manchu 
prince who held control in Pekin that he had a letter 
for Prince Ching, into whose hands he was com- 
manded to deliver it. 

“ Let the messenger give us the writing,” Prince 
Tuan demanded. “ The Prince Ching is far away.” 

“ Then let your illustrious Highness summon him 
or send me to the prince,” Ned replied with all neces- 
sary adjectives. “ For only to him who signed the 
letter can I deliver my answer.” 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 


221 


At once the Manchu prince, whom it was so often 
death to cross, burst out into a rage that was known 
to all his trembling adherents and servants as 
“ Prince Tuan's ch’i ” — a blind, unreasoning anger. 

He drew his sword and would have cut the Amer- 
ican boy down in the heat of his rage, but the lad 
never shrank. Instead, he caught his breath slowly 
between his firmly closed lips, and drew himself up 
almost in defiance of the angered Manchu. 

“ I kept my word; let the prince keep his,” he said, 
as the prince paused in his anger but swung his up- 
lifted sword aloft. 

“What says the dog?” demanded the prince of 
the interpreter, his eyes still blazing with wrath. 

As the lad’s words were translated, the prince 
strode forward as if in excess of anger at being thus 
braved by a foreign boy. But the sword did not fall. 

Fanatic and foreign-hater though he was, Prince 
Tuan the Manchu was a soldier, who admired bra- 
very and respected courage even in a foeman. With 
one of those sudden changes which were a part of his 
savage character, as a man of hasty impulses and of 
vigorous actions, the prince stepped back; a smile 
chased the flush of rage from his yellow cheeks and 
the man whose life had been spent in subduing the 
robbers and rebels of the western mountains actually 
subdued himself, and replaced his anger with ad- 
miration. 


222 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ It is a brave youth,” he said. “ Tell me, I pray, 
are all Americans like this ? ” 

“ You knew the General Ward, O mighty prince.” 
was Ned’s wise reply. “We are of the same blood. 
Americans fear a broken promise more than death.” 

“ I pardon you. Give me the letter,” said the 
prince. 

“ To the Prince Ching I deliver the letter, O 
prince,” the American replied firmly. “ If he was 
here to sign the message to the ministers he is here 
to receive their reply. To him, with you, I will 
deliver it.” 

Again the flush of wrath blazed on the Manchu’s 
cheek, but he said nothing. Instead he pulled at his 
long mustache and conferred with his colleagues. 

“ The American is wise for his years,” he said at 
last. “ If the Prince Ching signed the letter truly the 
answer is for him.” 

He paused an instant. 

“ Let this messenger from the ministers be treated 
with all honor,” he said. “ He is brave, he is truth- 
ful, he is wise. O youth,” he added, “ the Prince 
Ching shall see you. Until he comes from his far 
place you are a guest of our palace and no harm shall 
come to you.” 

So Ned escaped the wrath of the Manchu dictator. 
But he kept the letter. And from general to ban- 
nerman, from interpreter to palace official and spear- 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 223 

man of the guard all men marvelled at this bold, 
young American who had braved “ Prince Tuan’s 
ch’i ” and lived to tell the tale. 

Whether or not he was to live to tell the tale Ned 
could only conjecture. The rumor was that Prince 
Ching was friendly to the foreigners ; but that might 
only be a rumor, and Ned could not be certain that 
his bold “ bluff ” in regard to the letter might not 
work his ruin in the end. But youth is ever san- 
guine, and the young American, looking only on the 
bright side, hoped for the best. 

Others had hoped for the best in China and been 
disappointed. Young and old, men whose lives had 
been given to what they deemed the good of the 
strange peoples among whom they had made their 
homes ; women who had bravely and unselfishly done 
what they deemed their duty toward this mighty 
mass of “ those who sit in darkness ” had been over- 
whelmed in the uprising of those who would not be 
benefited, who despised and hated these heralds 
and teachers of new ideas, and in spite of their hope- 
fulness and trust had been cruelly slain by those who 
knew neither sympathy nor sentiment, or driven as 
refugees from the homes and schools they had so 
patiently established — powerless, penniless, deprived 
of all save life. 

Ned Pevear did not know where was “ the far 
place ” from which Prince Ching was to be sum- 


224 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


moned, but he could not see that there was anything 
for him to do but wait. He therefore possessed his 
soul in patience and, Micawber-like, waited for 
something to turn up. 

The palace of Prince Tuan was the usual hodge 
podge of space and splendor, dirt and decay that are 
typical of Chinese architecture and aristocracy. Laid 
out on a grand scale and at vast expense, and then ab- 
solutely uncared for, so far as repairs and house- 
cleaning go, even Ned Pevear’s young and strong 
nerves found it hard to overcome the filth sufficiently 
to admire the carving and coloring. Gigantic gods 
grinned at him from gateway and courtyard ; porce- 
lain pictures from the life of Buddha lined the walls, 
while eaves, angles and corners were decorated with 
porcelain statues of gods, men and devils, beautifully 
executed and always repulsive. Dirt was everywhere, 
from gate entrance to fish pond; and real comfort, 
such as an American desires, was nowhere. But from 
prince to coolie no one seemed to mind the profusion 
of one or the lack of the other, though Ned now held 
his breath and now his nose until he had schooled 
himself to endure the smells and sights that make 
even a Chinese palace so wondrously filthy that as 
Ned remembered his friend, the Hong Kong consul 
general, once assured him “ an American would not 
make butter from cows stabled within the princely 
precincts. ,, 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 225 

To be sure there were no cows stabled there, but 
from the open field that was a part of the palace area 
Ned heard shouts and cries that told of the urging 
or exercising of some animals — “ either ponies or 
coolies/’ he decided; he could not say which. 

He was soon to know, however; for the inter- 
preter of the prince came to him with an invitation 
that was almost a demand to see the prince’s men ride 
on the racing field. 

Tuan the Manchu was rough rider and athlete as 
well as dictator and soldier. Even while war and 
siege occupied his time and thought, he still found 
leisure for his favorite sports; so, while he waited 
the coming of Prince Ching, he watched the field 
sports in his palace area, and, as if to impress the 
American messenger with the prowess and agility of 
his retainers, he summoned the lad as a witness of 
the skill of his athletes and acrobats. 

They certainly had skill; as wrestlers and riders 
they fought with ability and rode with daring. 

There were boxing bouts that were a strange mix- 
ture of modern and mediaeval methods; there were 
wrestling matches that strained cord and sinew in 
long-delayed overthrows and well-contested “ties ” ; 
and when, riding bareback on the fleet, vicious and 
tireless little mountain horses, the prince’s best riders 
strove before their master, the prince summoned his 
prisoner-guest before him and, through the interpre- 


226 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


ter, demanded whether the American had ever seen 
or taken part in such exhibitions of horsemanship or 
wrestling. 

Born of the plains and the ranch, a major in his 
school battalion, the captain of his football team and 
champion on the cinder-path Ned Pevear did not 
propose to be “ phased ” by any Chinese athlete or 
rider. 

“ Say to his Highness that his men do splendidly,” 
Ned replied; “ but say, too, that in America we have 
riders and wrestlers that could beat his professionals 
all hollow.” 

“ Are you one of them ? ” the prince demanded. 

“ Well, Excellency,” returned Ned, modestly but 
impressively, “ I hold prizes and have made records.” 

The grim face of the prince lit up with a new ex- 
citement. 

“ Will the American show his skill?” he de- 
manded. 

Ned drew himself up proudly. 

“In our land,” he returned, “ it is not considered 
the proper thing for amateurs to contend with pro- 
fessionals. I am an amateur and cannot enter 
against these professionals.” 

It was a shrewd and clever method of declination, 
but the prince was determined. 

“ Will the young foreigner contend with me, down 
yonder?” he demanded. “I am no professional. 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 227 


Let the youth prove which is most skilful — Chinese 
or American. I challenge him to a race or a 
wrestle. ,, 

This was an unexpected invitation, and Ned hesi- 
tated. 

“ If he fears,” the prince continued, noting the 
lad’s hesitation, “ then bring one of the boys from the 
stable. I will match him even.” 

This was more than Ned Pevear could stand. He 
had never yet refused a challenge. 

“ Fear! ” he cried. “ I ’m not afraid of anything 
but treachery. If the prince will give me his word 
that all shall be fair and square on the field I’ll meet 
him or any non-professional of his whole court. I 
never dodge a dare.” 

The lad’s Americanisms, so far as the interpreter 
was able, were made clear to the prince, and this 
largest and strongest of all the children of Kwang 
the great Emperor, a born athlete and a trained lover 
of out door sport, flung aside his princely robe and 
descending to the field beckoned the American to 
follow him. 

There was no alternative and Ned flung off his 
khaki jacket and his shirt and faced the Manchu, his 
fair skin, browned though it was by exposure to 
sun and wind, contrasting noticeably with the 
swarthy face and dark skin of the Manchu prince, 
darker even than most of the Manchu race. 


228 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Other contrasts were noticeable. The Manchu 
was muscular and hardened, inclining, however, al- 
most to heaviness; the American, slighter in build, 
but of almost a man’s full height, seemed outclassed 
by his antagonist; but his muscles were like iron, 
his condition as perfect as military life and out-of- 
door exercise could make him, while the training of 
gymnasium and ball field made him no mean antag- 
onist for the soldier prince. 

Each looked upon the other with a certain amount 
of conscious admiration, and in an instant had 
clenched for a wrestle. Each was handicapped by an 
ignorance of the other’s method, but it proved after 
all to be but a match between brute force and edu- 
cated skill, in which the latter won and, after a short 
but taxing struggle, Ned played his leg-thrust and 
ankle-lock that had so often proved too much for 
school-boy contestant, Filipino fighter and Interna- 
tional soldier in friendly rivalry and the big Manchu 
fell heavily to earth. 

He was on his feet again in an instant, discom- 
fited but determined and with just a shade of his 
“ ch’i ” or wrath darkening his swarthy face. 

“ Once more ! again ! ” he cried, fairly rushing at 
the American who, surprised at his own success, un- 
derstood the action rather than the words and would 
have declined another bout. 

But just then there came a blare of trumpets from 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 229 

the palace gates; and an officer hastened to the field, 
kotowing and announcing. 

The prince replied angrily to the summons and 
waving the officer away would have clenched again 
with the American, but he paused as once more the 
trumpet sounded and again the officer spoke. Turn- 
ing, Prince Tuan snapped out a word of grudging 
consent. 

“ It is the messenger from Prince Ching,” the in- 
terpreter explained to Ned, and even as he did so 
there came into the exercising field, a portly, well- 
robed and pompous official messenger, who, staying 
neither for ceremony or consent, strode straight to 
the spot where stood the disrobed and still panting 
contestants in the “non-professional wrestle.” 

“ Highness,” he said, and the interpreter, standing 
beside Ned, gave him the gist of the interview, 
though not the “ frescoes ” and compliments of Chi- 
nese communication, “ the Prince Ching cannot 
come to the conference. It is, he says, for the Prince 
Tuan to come to him, sending first the foreign mes- 
senger with the letter that is for the Prince Ching. 
This is his right and he begs you to accord it.” 

“ Their highnesses hate each other,” the mes- 
senger interjected, in explanation; “they will have 
nothing to do jointly with affairs of state. I ex- 
pected this, young American. Beware of the prince’s 
anger.” 


230 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


The anger was rising in the Manchu breast. He 
faced the messenger from Prince Ching with bitter 
and threatening words. 

“ The Prince Ching is rebel and malcontent,” he 
said; “ he is friend to these foreign devils who have 
over-run our land and would turn us from the ways 
of our fathers and dishonor the tombs of our an- 
cestors. But let him beware ! I am master now and 
my word can bring to death even one so proud as he. 
He shall have neither messenger nor letter. I, as 
chief in command, refuse to recognize his authority 
to summon me. I will read this letter from the for- 
eigners which the messenger has brought. Give it to 
me, American ! ” 

Involuntarily, as the interpreter voiced the de- 
mands of the prince, Ned clapped his hand to where 
the pocket of his blouse should be — and struck only 
bare flesh. Then he remembered that his papers 
were left in the pocket of his blouse. 

“ I demand my letter, O prince,” he said. “ I hold 
your promise.” 

The prince turned from one who was whispering 
to him. 

“ Give the messenger his papers,” he said. “ Let 
him clothe himself once more. He shall go to the 
Prince Ching, not because of the prince’s demand, 
which is as nothing to me, but because of my promise 
to him. But know this, O foreign youth. I know the 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 231 

answer you bring. It is my gift from the gods to 
read through seals and paper, the hidden secrets of 
the letter writer. Your ministers will not do as we 
invited them and come within our protection. They 
are foreign devils who persist in their foolishness 
and shall die as the fool dies. I have them here ” — » 
he thrust out his open hand — “ I have but to say the 
word and I crush them, — thus ! ” and he closed his 
hand into a clenched and crushing fist. 

“ As for you,” he said, “ you who would bring me 
this answer that means death to those fools yonder ” 
— he flung his hand toward the legations — “ it means 
death also. I can send you to the ling ch’i — the ox- 
knife that cuts away slowly, piece by piece. Hola ! ” 
he gave a peculiar cry and across the field came the 
executioner with the great “ ox-eared ” knife that 
slices a victim to slow and torture-filled death — in 
from twenty to one hundred cuts, according to the 
degree of punishment. 

Ned looked at the executioner; he looked at the 
angry prince ; he looked at the envoy from the Prince 
Ching — and then his heart leaped from despair to 
hope; for in the envoy from Prince Ching he recog- 
nized, as he had not before, his friend Wong, the 
Omaha merchant. 

The envoy saw the boy’s look of recognition and 
appeal and simply laid a hand on his lips. Then he 
addressed the Manchu tyrant. 


232 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Mightiness ! ” he said. “ This is open revolt 
against Prince Ching — the trusted adviser of the 
Emperor. Beware what you do. But ” — he added, 
as he marked Tuan’s rising rage, “ if this foreigner 
must die, let it not be by ling ch’i or any of our meth- 
ods. Let it be by something fitting his foreign birth 
and ways — something that shall show the forgive- 
ness of your highness towards one who has striven 
with him in friendly wrestle.” 

It was a shrewd suggestion, for it turned the Man- 
chu’s impetuous and changeable nature into a new 
channel. 

“ You speak wisely, O friend of my enemy, the 
Prince Ching,” he said. “ My wrath is not against 
this stalwart one who has kept his promise and re- 
turned even though he knew it might be to death. 
See! it shall be a friendly choice. Wrestle once 
more with me, American. If I fall you go free; if 
you fall, you shall give yourself pleasantly to death 
— graciously reduced by my clemency to but ten 
swift slicings of my best executioner’s ling ch’i. 
Then will I celebrate my victory over a rival wrestler, 
by destroying at one blow, legations, ministers, for- 
eigners — all who defy my power and refuse my 
mercy. Come ! prepare ! ” 

Ned was about to reply, but the envoy stopped him 
with a gesture. 

“ Your pardon, highness!” he said. “Let us 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 233 

be just, even to our foreign foes. This youth is well 
nigh spent with his trial of muscles that, by accident, 
surely, gave the victory to him. Let him rest for 
new strength before the test, and meanwhile, let him 
show you how these Americans can ride. I have 
heard that they are mighty horsemen.” 

“Good!” Prince Tuan nodded his approval. 
“ The Prince Ching has a wise and clever servant, 
whose advice is excellent. Can you ride, American? ” 

“ My father, O prince, is owner of thousands of 
broad acres and many swift horses,” the lad replied. 
“ I was brought up on horseback. Try me.” 

Again the prince nodded his approval. “ Good ! ” 
he exclaimed again. “ I try you, American, on my 
best — not the mountain horses you have seen in the 
field, but the black Tartar horse the Russian envoy 
gave me. If you master him and three times circle 
the field and outride my best horseman I will grant 
you to be twice the victor — in the wrestle and the 
ride — and you shall choose your own manner of 
death ; for die you must ; I have sworn it.” 

Slowly the interpreter rendered the Manchu’s de- 
cision. 

* “ Kotow your thanks,” the Omaha merchant 
whispered. “ Then ride ! for life or death. The 
way is straight and open through the palace. Be 
wary and swift.” 

Ned prepared for the ride carefully. 


234 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ It is for life or death,” he counselled himself; 
“ probably for death; it looks so, but I’ll not shame 
my training or die unless I have to.” 

The Tartar was a noble animal, black and with- 
out blemish, towering above the little mountain 
horses upon whom he looked down in contempt, and 
so restive and strong as to call for three grooms to 
hold and lead him. His neck arched and tossed su- 
perbly and he pranced and pawed and pulled as if 
mad to be free. A light bridle was his only trapping 
and even that chaffed and annoyed him. 

Ned regarded him critically. 

“ A fair animal,” he said to the interpreter; “but 
my father has even more vicious brutes than this. 
Am I to select my own saddle ? ” 

In reply to the question, the prince nodded. 

The American took up his khaki blouse, folded it 
neatly without crease or rumple and while a half 
dozen grooms danced about to hold the restless Tar- 
tar, the lad deftly and firmly strapped his jacket to 
the horse’s back, feeling secretly, to make sure the 
letter to Prince Ching was safe. Then he begged for 
his own use the loan of the blouse and cap of the 
prince’s uniformed guard, and with a salute to the 
prince vaulted to the back of the restless Tartar, 
raging under the American’s homemade saddle. 

The fight for conquest between horse and rider 
held for full five minutes. But this son of the West- 


IN THE PALACE OF PRINCE TUAN 235 

ern ranch and the campaign field had tamed many 
a bucking broncho; he had backed vicious horses 
before, and the victory was his. With a shout and 
a wave of his hand in challenge he darted off on the 
stretch around the field, the prince's picked riders 
galloping at his heels. 

Once around; twice around; he led them all by a 
full quarter stretch while the Prince Tuan, his grim 
face resting on his hand, watched with all the delight 
and interest of one who dearly loved a race. 

The young rider turned for the third round; the 
horse was going at a great pace when, suddenly, with 
a swift turn of the bridle, straight about Ned 
wheeled the black Tartar and, with the yell of the 
Yankee battle charge that brought prince and peo- 
ple to their feet, he headed straight for the palace 
entrance, and, with another yell, scattering servants, 
soldiers, beggars and retainers to the left and right, 
straight through the palace he dashed, out at the 
Yamen gate, and like a black terror before which 
guards and coolies fell away in fright, the boy on 
horseback burst into the street of the Tartar city. 


CHAPTER XIV 


THE SCHEMING OF CAPTAIN ULLMAN 

“Ching; Ching! The Prince Ching!” Ned 
shouted as he rode, waving in his free hand the letter 
he had drawn from his belt. 

The name and the flaunted paper people could 
understand, and as they recognized the great black 
horse of Prince Tuan, the Manchu and the blue coat 
and cap of his uniformed guard they knew that the 
messenger rode on some mighty business and they 
gave him way without stop or hindrance. 

But Ned Pevear had no more idea where the pal- 
ace of Prince Ching stood or how to reach it than 
had the black Arabian he rode at such a breakneck 
pace. His one idea was to escape the vengeance of 
Prince Tuan; so he galloped blindly ahead hoping 
to gain at last the safety of the legation lines or by 
some ill-guarded gate, make his way out of the Tar- 
tar city. 

But the Tartar city of Pekin, like all Chinese 
cities, is a Chinese puzzle and Ned’s acquaintance 
with it had thus far been confined to the outside. 
But far ahead, a mile away at least, overtopping the 
236 


SCHEMING OF CAPTAIN ULLMAN 237 

squat houses of the Tartar city, rose the great walls 
of the Imperial or Forbidden City — the residence of 
Emperor and court, a fortress within a fortress. 

“Not that way, anyhow,” Ned declared to him- 
self ; “ that’ll be rushing into the dragon’s open 
jaws,” and swerving from the wide, dusty, offensive 
and filth-encumbered avenue along which he was gal- 
loping, the American sought a cut-off through one 
of the narrow lanes that served as cross streets and 
which, he hoped, might bring him into another ave- 
nue that should lead away from the Imperial City. 

Ned felt but little fear of attack. His black horse 
and his uniform of Prince Tuan’s guard were, he 
believed, sufficient protection from Boxer, Imperial 
soldier, Bannerman or Pekin rioter. His duty, he 
knew, was to find the Prince Ching and deliver the 
message he bore. But how ? but how ? 

Musing thus as he guided his restive horse 
through the encumbering filth of the narrow street 
scarce wide enough for horse and rider, Ned was 
suddenly brought to the right-about as another 
horseman, in the uniform of the Imperial cavalry, 
dashed into the wide avenue and galloped straight 
against the boy on the black Arabian. 

The cavalryman’s hand grabbed at Ned’s bridle 
rein and before the American could resist he had 
thrown the black horse fairly on its haunches, while 
a loud demand in voluble Chinese was flung at the 


238 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


young fellow to the evident delight of the growing 
crowd of Chinamen that began to throng about the 
two horsemen. 

Surprised and startled though he was, Ned still 
retained a grip on his self-possession and shaking in 
the face of his antagonist, the paper he was carrying, 
he cried “ Ching ! Prince Ching ! I ride to the 
Prince Ching/’ using the name as his best and only 
pass-word. 

Again a volley of Chinese protests and expletives 
broke from the cavalryman, but, in the midst of 
them, Ned was astonished to hear in excellent Eng- 
lish words : “ Resist not, my friend, but come with 
me; it is our only chance for escape.” 

Ned suffered himself to be turned away, but as he 
rode at a quick pace alongside this Imperial cavalry- 
man who spoke English he stole a rapid but search- 
ing glance at the face of his escort. 

“ By George ! ” he cried — but cautiously, “ It’s the 
German drillmaster. Cap’n Ullman, where did you 
drop from ? ” 

“ From off the legation wall,” the German replied 
with lowered voice and an expansive smile. “ I am 
a messenger to find a messenger — and behold. I 
have found him.” 

“ But — in that uniform? ” queried Ned. 

“ I was a coolie when I was lowered from the 
legation wall; but — well — I know Pekin, my dear 


SCHEMING OF CAPTAIN ULLMAN 239 

friend, and much may be procured by the right man- 
ner? — even this uniform of the Imperial cavalry. 
And why did I drop from the wall? For you, my 
friend. I know the ways of these men of China — 
the official men ; and I knew that your only help lay 
in the Prince Ching, to whom, behold! I go to beg 
your life — with you whom I would save riding by 
my side. It is peculiar, yes ? ” 

“ Right you are,” replied Ned. “ For, look, Cap’n 
Ullman. I, too, am trying to find the palace of 
Prince Ching to deliver him my letters, as is my 
duty.” 

And the American lad thrust before the eyes of the 
German, the message from the Ministers at the 
Legation. “ To the Prince Ching and others.” 

“ And you held to it through all, eh ? ” cried the 
German with enthusiasm. “ It is like you, my brave 
one. You kept it from the hand of Prince Tuan, 
yes ? But how ? ” 

Ned related briefly the story of his adventures at 
the palace of the great Manchu prince, to which 
Ullman listened with much nodding of the head and 
many emphatic expressions of interest. 

“ And, my friend,” queried the German, as Ned 
concluded his narrative, “ the message — the letter to 
the Prince Ching? You had it upon you, perhaps, 
when you wrestled with the Prince Tuan? — a great 
feat, that wrestle; but, see what training may do. 


2 4 o UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

But, you, perhaps, kept it or laid it aside — the let- 
ter?” 

“ Why, of course, I laid it aside, Cap’n, when I 
stripped for the wrestle,” Ned replied. “ There 
wouldn’t have been anything left of it if I’d kept it 
on me.” 

“ And now ? Is there anything left of it, as you 
say? ” queried the German. 

“ Why, certainly, here it is. Don’t you see it ? 

Addressed — sealed — and un ” Ned began. Then 

a great fear broke on him. “ You don’t mean, 
surely — ” 

As the lad stopped the German captain nodded his 
head oracularly. 

“ That is just what I do mean, Herr Ned,” he 
replied. “ Said I not to you that I know the ways 
of these men of China — the official men ? They are 
full of what you would call the craftiness. Give to 
me your message. I will show you.” 

And taking from Ned Pevear’s unresisting hand 
the message he had held so guardedly, the German 
without asking permission tore open the envelope. 

Ned uttered a cry of protest. 

“ See ! What said I ? ” Ullman exclaimed. “ Look 
you. See for yourself.” 

Ned Pevear’s cry of protest changed to one of 
dismay, astonishment and rage. The letter which 
the German Captain extracted from the envelope of 


SCHEMING OF CAPTAIN ULLMAN 241 

the legation and displayed to the American was a 
blank sheet of paper ! 

“ The rascals ! The villains, tiie — the — heathen 
Chinees ! ” cried Ned at loss for words to express his 
feelings. “ Of all the low-down, dirty tricks to play 
on a white man this — this — beats ’em all.” 

Words evidently were lacking; but his thoughts 
were vigorous. 

“ It is plain to one who knows your friend yon- 
der,” the German said with a backward nod toward 
Prince Tuan’s palace. “ He invites you to a 
wrestle; he shows you all courtesy; and when you 
have laid aside your blouse, his secretary extracts 
your despatch, reads it, keeps it, puts in its place a 
blank — a blank, say I ? Slowly, let us go slowly, my 
friend; is it a blank? I know these — Ach! so; I 
thought it. Look you, Herr Ned, what the Prince 
Tuan had placed again in your violated envelope. 
So, I hold it to the light. See you anything ? ” 

Ned looked carefully at the blank paper held aloft 
to the light. 

“ Why, it is no blank,” he said. “ There’s some 1 - 
thing on it. Tea-chest markings; fire-cracker let- 
ters. It’s Chinese.” 

“ Ah, it is the head you have, my Ned, the great 
head,” the German said with nods that savored of 
sarcasm. “ And the Chinese — in English — what 
think you it means ? ” 


242 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Give it up,” said Ned. “ I’m not up in it yet.” 
“ Listen you,” said Captain Ullman, “ thus reads 
the message you bear to the Prince Ching: ‘We 
send to your highness, a foreign spy from the lega- 
tions, caught within our palace. We would have 
given him to ling-ch’i — (the slicing with the axe, my 
friend) did we not feel that your Highness should 
share with us the responsibility. We pray you put 
him to the torture at once. His confessions may be 
of value.’ Now, boy, will you ride to the torture? 
Will you deliver your message to the Prince Ching? ” 
“ But it is not my message,” Ned replied. “ It is 
— by George,” — and he wheeled his horse about — 
“ I’ll ride back to that fraud of a Tuan, and face him 
with his treachery. I’ll — ” 

“ You’ll ride back to the death that is certain, 
whichever way you turn,” the German replied. 
“ Prince Ching cannot protect you ; Prince Tuan is 
even now on your track; to enter the legation 
grounds is now impossible. Your only way is to 
gallop back to Tien Tsin and the camp of the allies. 
Look you. I will ride with you. We are couriers 
from Prince Tuan to the general in the command 
before Tien Tsin.” 

“ Who is he? ” queried Ned. 

“ Ach himmel, who knows that? Not I.” the 
German exclaimed. “ Is it Sung Ching, or Yung 
Lee or, perhaps, that dragon fiend Tung-fuh-Chan ? 


SCHEMING OF CAPTAIN ULLMAN 243 


What then? Would I say go to the general in com- 
mand? No, my friend, we go away from them. 
Our salvation is to get inside the allied lines. But, 
until we do, we are the Chinese cavalry riders — cou- 
riers from Pekin. Trust to me. I know the Chi- 
nese. Is it not for me to pull over the eyes the 
wool, as you say — yes ? ” 

“ It’s Hobson’s choice, Cap’n, I reckon,” Ned re- 
plied with his usual readiness to accept things as 
they were. “ Only — don’t try any of that military 
business you tried with the Boxer signs — you re- 
member. That got us into a nice pickle, you know.” 

“ From which you got out, eh? ” the German re- 
plied. “ But we are not Boxers ; we are of the 
Imperial cavalry and ride on duty. Who shall stop 
us? ” 

Ned hoped no one would; but he knew that there 
were many slips between cup and lip — in China, and 
he devoutly hoped the captain would pull them 
through all right. Certainly, his own mission had not 
been a success. He had escaped, thus far, but his 
message had gone wrong and he had no hope in the 
Prince Ching. If only, the lad thought, — if only he 
could think up some daring scheme that should 
startle the world and make China come down quicker 
than “ Cap’n Scott’s coon.” Suppose — suppose — 
By George ! Why not ? Suppose he and Ullman in 
their Chinese uniforms should steal their way into 


244 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


the Forbidden City and kidnap the young emperor — 
or the Dowager Empress ? Whew ! What a scheme ? 
But why not? 

At once, fired by the plan he communicated it to 
his companion. 

The captain patted the young American on the 
bridle arm as if in appreciation and encouragement. 

“ It is a grand — a marvel of a plan,” he said with 
nod and smile. “ The young emperor, he would be 
of joy to see thee. He delights in things American. 
His toys are of your country — machinery — the elec- 
trical — all things, from fire engine to railway engine, 
to telephone and phonograph. He has too much of 
the toys that are noisy and talkative ; he would wel- 
come, perhaps, the toy that is silent — the head of an 
American boy.” 

“ My head?” cried Ned. “ Why, what do you 
mean, Cap’n ? ” 

“ What I have said, my friend,” the German re- 
plied with a meaning smile. “ The head of the Herr 
Ned would be the only thing that would come into 
the presence of the young Kwang. See the em- 
peror? Why, what think you? That it is possible 
we could pass soldiers, armed guards, spies, people 
of the gates and of the palace, and find our way to 
the emperor — whom no one sees? Set thy head 
straight on thy shoulders, good friend. Himmel ! it 
is turned already.’/ 


SCHEMING OF CAPTAIN ULLMAN 245 

Ned would still have reasoned out his grand 
scheme; but again the hand of his companion was 
laid upon his arm and the whispered warning fell 
upon his ear : “ Ei, ride carefully, my friend, and 
say nothing. We are at the Hatu-men gate.” 

Ned nodded, and keeping his black horse well 
abreast of his companion rode on, watchful but with 
well-assumed confidence, as if he feared no question- 
ing from the guard at the gate, when one rode as the 
courier of Prince Tuan. 

Suddenly, the German gave a twist on Ned’s 
bridle rein and turned swiftly to the left. Down a 
narrow side street they rode in single file, with no 
word of explanation from the captain and no word 
of inquiry from the American. Then, where it “ de- 
bouched ” into a wider avenue, the captain dropped 
beside Ned. 

“ It was but just by the skin of our teeth, as you 
would say, Herr Ned,” he whispered. “ They were 
Prince Tuan’s soldiers, who waited on watch with 
the guard at the Hatu-men gate.” 

“Whew! you did turn just in time,” said Ned. 
“ Where now, Cap’n ? ” 

“ Um, um, let me think,” the captain mumbled, 
patting his nose. “ If by the other gates, they, too, 
are guarded, and we go to our death; if by — ach, 
so, it is the thing, the very thing,” and to Ned’s 
surprise, the German captain flung his bridle to the 


246 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


American and dropping from his horse strode into 
the broad avenue and accosted a man in charge of a 
kneeling camel train. 

Ned had been long enough in China to recognize 
in the ruddy yellow and pleasant frankness of the 
camel driver’s face, the Tartar, and not the native 
Chinaman. The man stood beside the unwilling 
dromedary he had just ordered to its feet, and in his 
hand he held the single rein which, attached to the 
piece of wood that passed through the dromedary’s 
nostrils, was the bridle that guided that beast of 
burden. In his other hand he held the big, loaded 
staff with its thick thong of knotted leather, that 
served as the camel’s instrument of discipline. 

The Tartar’s eyes looked over the street to where 
Ned stood with the horses. Then he ordered the 
camel to its knees and crossed the street with the 
German captain. 

To the Tartar the German and American were but 
Chinese cavalrymen who were ready to desert the 
service. To the American the Tartar was a different 
being from the Chinaman; there was a certain pic- 
turesqueness about his heavily wadded clothes, his 
dyed sheepskins and his gold-buttoned Chinese cap, 
perched on top of his fur hood, all in bright con- 
trasting colors, that attracted the lad and led him 
somehow to trust in the Tartar as a means of 
escape. 


SCHEMING OF CAPTAIN ULLMAN 247 

Just how he could be made a means of escape Ned 
could not see, nor could he understand the peculiar 
methods by which the captain hoped to convince this 
wandering merchant of the Mongolian plains. The 
talk was all in Chinese, but from the critical looks 
with which the Tartar inspected the two horses, Ned 
inferred that some kind of a “ dicker ” was afoot. 

There was; for before five minutes had passed, 
and while the captain's eyes were beginning to move 
restlessly toward the streets that led to the Hatu- 
men gate, the Tartar nodded his confirmation of the 
German's offer, and opening the door of a warehouse 
almost at Ned’s back motioned the two foreigners 
within and begun stripping off the accoutrements of 
their horses. 

“ It is a risk, my friend Ned," the captain said in 
low tones, “ but it is for us to try it. For these, our 
horses, the Tartar, who is camel-owner and horse- 
trader, will try to get us through the gates. I who 
speak Chinese will go in Tartar dress with him, on 
the foot, beside the camels; but you who speak it not 
and are best out of sight will he stuff into one of the 
big baskets in which sometimes ride his children, 
swung over the camel’s back." 

Even in the dusk of the warehouse the captain 
could seem to see Ned Pevear's expression of dissent 
and dismay, for he laughed a German chuckle of fun 
at the lad’s expense. 


248 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ What! I go out in a child’s basket? ” said Ned. 
“ Why, I can’t. I’m too big for it, I know.” 

“ You must make yourself small, mein lieber 
kind ” laughed the German, “ or the Chinese artist of 
the Prince Tuan will make you shorter forever by a 
head. It will not be what you call riding in the 
luxurious, but it will be riding to life, and is not that 
worth the crowding yourself, eh?” 

It certainly was, and Ned decided to swallow his 
pride and be a child again; so by the time that the 
Tartar and his yellow- jacketed wife came waddling 
to the warehouse door with a big basket between 
them, Ned was quite ready to throw into it his own 
suit of khaki and climbing into the basket in his 
Chinese uniform make himself as small as possible 
and thus be speedily hoisted to the back of the dou- 
ble-humped, short-legged, shaggy and powerful 
beast of burden known as the dromedary. 

He had just a sight of Captain Ullman, in Tartar 
raiment with sheepskin boots and knotted leather 
thong and staff shambling off as the Tartar’s assist- 
ant, and to hear his comrade’s parting word of warn- 
ing: “ Lie you still, Herr Ned and play the baby or 
you will never live to grow up ; ” then the procession 
was off — camels, horses, Tartars and all, bound for 
the Hatu-men gate. 

The tide of travel, always heavy through this 
main entrance to the Tartar city, was especially so 


SCHEMING OF CAPTAIN ULLMAN 249 

that day, as troops were hurried to the front to stay 
the advance of the “ foreign devils,” and refugees 
from the villages toward Tien Tsin, straggled into 
the capital to find shelter or safety with their friends 
in the quadruple city. So, the caravan was but 
briefly stopped for questioning at the gate and then 
passed shambling through, while Ned in his “ baby 
basket ” blamed his fate and feared it, too, as he 
made himself as diminutive as possible. 

The little cur that was tied above the covered 
basket top “ yapped ” viciously at some enraging 
pass or threat of a bystander, who replied with 
an equally vicious thrust of spear at the cur 
and the basket, to the imminent danger of the lad 
within the “ pannier.” In fact, Ned’s head 
did almost pop out of his hiding place, as 
he felt rather than saw the spear-point coming 
through his basket defences; but a heavy hand 
came down upon his head and a sharp .female 
voice mingled defiance at the guardsman, threats at 
the yelping cur and soothing song to the “baby” 
within the basket. It may be said, in all confidence, 
that Ned Pevear never felt so small in all his life. 

So out of the Tartar and through the Chinese city 
the shambling camel train passed on until the outer 
wall was reached, two miles beyond the Hatu-men 
gate. 

Before the deep arch that pierced the solid outer 


250 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


wall of Pekin the procession halted again for ques- 
tion and right of exit. Ned was all “ aches and 
cricks ” as he declared to himself, but his ears were 
intently listening, for he knew enough of his sur- 
roundings to feel assured that the last barrier was 
about to be passed. 

The questions and answers were brief and un- 
exciting, the tchk of the camel-driver started the 
train along again when, suddenly, came an excited 
demand and assertion, to which the mingling voices 
of the Tartar camel-driver and his assistant an- 
swered in angry denial. Ned could make out the 
tones of his German confederate, though raised in 
shrill Chinese, and wondered what under the sun 
was happening now. 

Cautiously he lifted his eyes above the basket rim 
and as cautiously peered out. The crossed spears 
and hook-like staves of the soldiers and city police 
barred, the progress of the camels, while, almost be- 
side him, a soldier in the livery of Prince Tuan had 
laid a restraining hand upon the black charger of his 
master. 

Ned’s heart leaped to his throat as he flattened 
himself into the basket. 

Angry words increased. The passing throngs, 
blocked in their exit and entrance, became impatient 
of the delay; there was pushing and shoving this 
way and that; the dromedary from whose back 


SCHEMING OF CAPTAIN ULLMAN 251 

Ned’s basket hung swayed this way and that like a 
ship at sea, and with grunt and stamp and kick dis- 
played his hostility at the interruption of his sulky 
meditation; then Ned felt the forward rush as if the 
out-going throng at the gate fairly pushed its way 
through; there was a clashing of spears, a shot and 
then another from pistol or rifle; the dromedary 
stumbled and fell head-foremost to the ground, and 
the “ baby basket,” thrown forward, dumped its liv- 
ing contents, stiffened but sprawling, in the road- 
way, while the Tartar woman who rode man-fashion 
across the camel’s back and who had posed as “ the 
baby’s ” mother, came with a thump and a thud full 
upon the prostrate American lad, and there was a 
sad muddle and catastrophe before the Sha-wo gate 
of old Pekin. 


CHAPTER XV 


WHAT HAPPENED ON THE JUNK 

The hubbub was great. Down from enciente and 
tower, out from camp and guard house soldiers came 
running furiously; camels screamed, dogs barked, 
horses neighed, and every dialect of China mingled 
in a mighty din. But Ned lay quiet. Discretion, 
that young man had learned, was the better part 
of valor, and any other kind of valor, just then, he 
felt would be misplaced. Stiffened by his cramped 
and huddled ride ; bruised from his sudden and unex- 
pected overthrow, half smothered by the weight of 
his Tartar “ mother ” who still rested, far from 
lightly, upon him, the American could not have 
moved just then even had he so desired. 

But the respite was short. The Tartar scrambled 
to her feet ; the demand of the camel driver for res- 
titution and revenge for his wounded dromedary 
rose in fierce bicker above the downfallen beast, and 
Ned was expecting every moment to be hauled to his 
feet a prisoner, when he felt a covering thrown over 
him; then in the midst of a new quarrel and scuffle 
252 


WHAT HAPPENED ON THE JUNK 253 

he felt himself picked up bodily and actually run 
away with, — where, he could not tell. 

There came another stumble and fall, and as he 
again “ touched earth ” in a daze of wonder and 
bruises, he heard the German’s voice in his ear. 

“ Uncover yourself carefully; do not rise until I 
bid you. Run, when I say so, keep close to me and 
run even as I do — for life.’’ 

Cautiously Ned Pevear pushed off the sheepskin 
cover that had enveloped him; then, finding himself 
backed by something soft and yielding, with a very 
“ beasty ” smell and a most unfriendly grunt, he 
braced himself well and looked about him. 

He had been thrown down by the captain in the 
very centre of one of the many camel tea-caravans 
that rested, as for centuries they have rested, in the 
plain just outside the great, gloomy, towering walls 
of Pekin. Camels kneeling and standing, bales, 
boxes, rolls and poles were all around him, while, 
under the lee of a great tea bale almost at his elbow, 
squatted the German captain, stripping himself of 
his Tartar encumbrances. 

“ They are even yet at it over there, my friend,” 
he said with a nod toward the gate where the jab- 
bering crowd still swayed and argued and shouted. 
“ They have not missed us yet. Shall we run for it ? 
Are you ready, yes ? ” 

“ Whenever you are, Cap’n. One — two — three — 


2 5 4 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

go! Now we’re off,” answered Ned, springing to 
his feet. 

They were off, like the wind, elbow to elbow, mak- 
ing rapid time — Ned did not know why or whither. 
To one confined, cramped, crowded, smothered and 
tumbled, as he had been, it is natural that it should 
be hard to properly get one’s bearings. 

“ Where to ? ” he queried, as he ran. 

“ For the river,” his comrade replied. “ If but 
we make that, it is for us perhaps to smuggle down 
to Tien Tsin.” 

“ How far? ” Ned demanded. 

“Don’t talk; keep your breath. The river? 
twelve miles,” the German replied shortly. 

“Twelve miles? Great Peter! and run like this 
all the way?” cried Ned. “Take me back to my 
baby basket.” 

It was a serious proposition even to a seasoned 
sprinter like Ned Pevear. It is a good twelve miles 
from Pekin to Tung Chow on the North, or Pei Ho, 
River. The old paved highway of the ancient kings, 
broad but horribly broken, is the most direct, but 
the hardest to travel; one or the other of the three 
parallel roadways, little more than deep rutted cart- 
ways through mud or dust, any of them, are the 
ones generally used by those who have some respect 
for breath and bones. Neither paved highway nor 
rutted roadway is acceptable where all are so bad; 


WHAT HAPPENED ON THE JUNK 255 

and, through a country seething with war-excite- 
ment, crowded with troops and full of dangers, the 
run to Tung Chow by two unarmed and hated “ for- 
eign devils ” through men thirsting for their blood 
was, to say the least, not a pleasure trip. 

But Ned and Captain Ullman were old campaign- 
ers who had been through many perils and come out 
unscathed; German persistency and Yankee pluck 
laughed at all obstacles, or saw in them only some- 
thing to be overcome. So, in spite of Ned’s objec- 
tion to a twelve-mile run, he had no intention of giv- 
ing in, and, sparing voice and breath, as the captain 
advised, he kept up the gait and trotted elbow to 
elbow beside his comrade. 

It seemed odd that they should have traveled on 
thus unmolested, but, as has often been shown, the 
safest place for a fugitive is in a crowd ; and among 
moving masses of men — soldiers, Boxers and non- 
combatants — going and coming between Pekin and 
Tung Chow, intent on their own affairs, the run- 
ning figures of two uniformed Chinese soldiers, evi- 
dently couriers from the capital, passed unmolested. 

Down from the beleaguered legation wall came the 
boom-boom of cannon that told the fugitives that the 
attack and defence were still on; the noise gave 
wings to their feet, for dread as to the consequences 
to the imprisoned and besieged foreigners was quite 
as strong upon them as the fear for their own safety. 


256 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


In fact, this dread as to the safety of the legation- 
ers so far exceeded their own personal fears that the 
fugitives grew less cautious as they proceeded, and 
when the waters of the great canal were in sight, 
and they knew that beyond the walls of Tung Chow, 
the muddy Pei-ho ran downward to Tien Tsin, their 
eagerness so exceeded their caution that they walked 
straight into the arms of a detachment of Imperial 
infantrymen, encamped beside the roadway, await- 
ing orders. 

Ned’s “ Great Scott! ” was noisily silenced by the 
German’s instant and voluble queries, and the re- 
sponses of the officer in charge of the detachment — 
all, of course, in Chinese. 

Evidently the German had decided to try a grand 
“ bluff.” His shrewd glance had taken in the situa- 
tion, and, indeed, as he afterwards explained to Ned 
Pevear, he assumed that he and his companion were 
special couriers from Prince Tuan, charged with a 
message to the commander of the detachment. 

“ I told him,” said Captain Ullman, “ that the 
Prince’s orders were too hurried to be put in writing, 
but that he bade the commander at once to make for 
the canal and the river, seize the largest and swiftest 
river junks he could find and push down as rapidly 
as possible until he should come up with the general 
Tung-fuh-Chan, who is undoubtedly hurling back 
the foreign devils to Tien Tsin or the sea. I, the 


WHAT HAPPENED ON THE JUNK 257 

courier, am to tell the general that the Prince is to 
send great hosts of reinforcements to complete the 
slaughter of the meddling and miserable foreigners.” 

Great bluff, that,” said Ned, as the Captain ex- 
plained his scheme; “and it worked — for a while.” 

It did work for a while, certainly. The infantry- 
men were on their feet in an instant, and, with 
the supposed couriers in their company, pushed 
on to the river. Ned wisely refrained from at- 
tempted conversation and the Captain’s Chinese 
served all purposes until the river was reached. A 
dozen of the largest river junks were speedily confis- 
cated and down the river under the vigorous work of 
impressed coolie boatmen, the junks went sweeping 
toward Tien Tsin. 

But, even while Ned was congratulating himself 
over the success of the German captain’s somewhat 
questionable plan, the expected happened — trouble. 

Across country, through rice and corn fields, gal- 
loped another brace of couriers, and dashing down 
the river bank came abreast of the junks, and, with 
shrill summons, waving hands and the excess of 
Asiatic emphasis, sought to stay the progress of the 
flotilla. 

“ The trouble for us is yonder, Herr Ned,” the 
German whispered to the American lad. “ Think of 
it — there were two couriers after all and we were 
behind. Now, come the true ones. How will it 


258 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


be with us? Did ever one see such — how you call 
it — ungluck f ” 

He rose to his feet; he waved a refusal to the 
shouting messengers ; he expostulated with the com- 
mander of the detachment who, in the next junk, was 
disposed to lay by for the message. He reminded 
him of Prince Tuan’s imperative orders and told him 
that the Prince had commanded haste, and to stop 
for nothing. The commander finally yielded to the 
German’s exhortations and, shouting to the messen- 
gers that he was under hurry orders and could not 
stop even for them, he bade the expedition hasten 
onward. 

The German captain dropped beside Ned with a 
sigh of relief. 

“ Again the shave was close,” he said. “ Ach, 
himmel ! if but we can be saved from such disturbers 
all may go well.” 

But the disturbers would not acknowledge defeat. 
Fairly dancing with rage they seemed ready to leap 
into the water and swim for the junks when, just 
then, one of the small, swift, thatched post-boats, 
rowed by foot and steered by hand came slowly up 
propelled by its single coolie boatman. The couriers 
spied it, they turned their horses loose, and order- 
ing the coolie inshore fairly waded aboard and turn- 
ing the boat about belabored the coolie boatman, 
until with all his force of foot and hand, he drove 


WHAT HAPPENED ON THE JUNK 259 

the post-boat abreast of the junk in which rode the 
commander of the troops. 

Stopping neither for protest or hindrance they 
sprang aboard the junk and at once launched into a 
torrent of Chinese speech. 

Ned and the captain gave one swift glance at this 
new turn of affairs ; then the German settled himself 
again with apparent coolness and unconcern. 

‘ ‘What are you going to do now ? ” queried 
Ned. 

“ I do nothing, my friend. Others shall do ; I 
wait/’ was all his companion would reply. 

The wait was not long. There came a hail from 
the commander's junk, and obeying orders the boat- 
men ceased poling while the commander’s junk 
came alongside. 

The commander of the troops with the two cou- 
riers beside him confronted the two masquerading 
cavalrymen, as Ned and the Captain rose to meet 
them. 

A sharp and harsh demand came from the com- 
mander, and the Captain’s brief answer was met by 
shrill protest and denial from the later arrived cou- 
riers. 

“ O, the pity of it, my friend, the pity of it that 
to you the Chinese tongue is not known,” Captain 
Ullman said to Ned as, later, he gave him the details 
of the interview. “Of me the commander de- 


260 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


manded who we were, and when I would say again 
we were couriers with orders from Prince Tuan, the 
latest arrived shrieked that I lied and that they were 
the Prince’s messengers, with orders for the soldiers 
we had stolen away to return at once to the capital, 
for the attack on the legations. But, behold ! when 
I demanded that the messengers should show the 
honorable commander their orders from the Prince, 
then, what think you ? like us they had none, for they 
rode even as did we in great haste and with only 
word of mouth orders, like to us. That was when I 
laughed, and, turning my back upon them, said to the 
commander that our orders were first and imperative. 
I told him to remember Prince Tuan’s wrath when 
one disobeyed his orders, and shrugging my shoul- 
ders I said, 4 Will the honorable commander be re- 
sponsible for the anger of Prince Tuan? I will not. 
My duty I have done. Let the highly respected and 
honorable commander do his duty and visit justice 
on these spies who come to him with false orders. I 
know them ; ’ I cried, suddenly turning upon the 
couriers swiftly. ‘ I say to the honorable commander 
they are spies — messengers from the foreigners held 
by our brave army within the legations, and sent 
down the river to beg help for their imprisoned mas- 
ters, from the foreign soldiers at Tien Tsin.’ Then 
— ha! mark you the inspiration, Herr Ned, I 
snatched me off the cap of one of the couriers, and 


WHAT HAPPENED ON THE JUNK 261 

slyly running my hand within the lining drew out a 
piece of paper on which was writing. 4 Look you 
here ! noble commander/ I cried, ‘ behold the mes- 
sage to the foreign devils they are even now, as I 
said, conveying concealed about them/ ” 

“ Good gracious ! Captain. What was it ? How 
did it get there? ” demanded Ned excitedly. 

The German gave a significant shrug. 

“ It was simple, my friend/’ he said. “ I am not 
stupid with — with — der laschenspielerstreich — the 
what you call the sleight hand — the legerde- 
main. I had the paper, the note in my hand, when 
I thrust it within the courier’s cap. And there you 
are ! And they — ” here the captain gave a chuckle — 
“ saw you not how they were dragged away and 
flung below board and gagged? Truly it is our star 
of luck that shines to-day, Herr Ned? ” 

It did seem so, certainly. To be sure, the com- 
mander of the detachment had not permitted the two 
alleged couriers to return to their junk but had held 
them with him, “ for the safe-keeping,” the captain 
declared, but with the silencing of the new comers 
the greatest danger seemed past. 

They were not, however, — the more’s the pity! — 
thoroughly silenced. Little by little, one of the cap- 
tives first loosened the gag and then slowly but pa- 
tiently worked it free. Suddenly upon the ears of the 
whole junk came the startling shriek of demand: 


262 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Hear me, hear me, most noble ! The truth, hear 
the truth. They are foreign devils themselves.” 

“Ach, horchen! heard you that?” the German 
cried, starting up. “ He finds us out ; his gag is free. 
Hold you hard, mein lieber, hold you fast. The 
shock is to come.” 

The shrieks of the ungagged one would not be 
silenced until once again he had been brought before 
the commander. 

“ We have none such in our guard of the Prince 
Tuan,” the released one cried. “ They are in dis- 
guise; they are spies. Stop them, stop them and see 
the white skin.” 

The commander hesitated an instant. Then so 
insistent appeared the accuser that he wavered and 
gave the order to his second in command. 

“ Strip them,” he said. 

A half dozen soldiers advanced upon Ned and the 
captain. The American, with a sovereign faith in 
his swimming powers, gave one glance at the river 
and prepared for a “ header.” But the German laid 
a hand upon his arm and defiantly waved back the 
advancing soldiers. 

“ Who touches me does so at his peril,” he said. 
“ Commander, hear me ! The spy speaks true. 
Look you, I have the white skin; so has my com- 
panion. There is no need to strip me, and it would 
be death should you do so. For, behold. I am of 


WHAT HAPPENED ON THE JUNK 263 

the army; I am of the Emperor’s own. And this is 
my lieutenant. I am the foreign captain, Carl Ull- 
man, Imperial drill master in the Chinese service. 
Behold, I have the button of a mandarin.” 

And flinging open his Chinese uniform, he dis- 
played to the astonished soldier, strung on a ribbon 
about his neck, the red button of a mandarin. 

Involuntarily, the commander of the detachment 
saluted the special officer of the emperor, even though 
his second thought was again a suspicion and an 
inquiry. 

“ But why in that costume ? ” he demanded. 
“ Why does the Imperial drill master travel in the 
costume of Prince Tuan’s soldier? ” 

“ On special service, most excellent commander,” 
the German replied. “ I who can speak three lan- 
guages of the foreign devils and that of the Purple 
Kingdom, too, am sent upon work, of which even to 
you, excellent one, I may not speak, when it is mine 
to command and not to obey. 

Ned, of course, could not understand this talk. 
His knowledge of Chinese was meagre and his im- 
patience over this “confab” that he could not fathom 
was hot within him. But he was shrewd enough to 
keep silent. He knew that the captain was, as he 
assured himself, “ working another bluff on the 
Chinkies, and it behooves you to stand mum and 
keep a stiff upper lip, Ned Pevear, my boy.” 


264 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


The captain was, indeed, playing his last card. 
He knew full well that not a foreign drill master was 
left in the Chinese service; that they had either been 
discharged before hostilities commenced, or, if, like 
him, they had for a time been impressed into the 
Chinese service they had, like him also, escaped as 
soon as possible; for the ban against the foreigners 
would threaten their safety, their very existence. 

But to know a thing yourself is not a proof that 
others know it, too; and the captain took that risk. 
In this it seemed as if he were, apparently, safe ; for 
after a brief period of thought the Chinese officer 
again saluted the German. 

“ It may be as you say,” he announced finally. 
“ You have the manner; you have the Imperial but- 
ton. It is not for me to decide against the Prince 
Tuan and his majesty, the Emperor. But, there are 
chances. Remain with me, noble foreign captain. 
Below us at Yang-tsun is his exalted excellency, the 
viceroy Yu-lu. To him will we refer the matter, and 
until then you two who claim to be the couriers of 
the prince and those other two who claim the same, 
shall here remain under guard, until the viceroy 
decides.” 

The captain saluted and placed a reassuring hand 
upon the shoulder of his companion. 

“ So far it is well, my friend,” he said in English. 
“ The shock to us is, as you say, postponed. We 


WHAT HAPPENED ON THE JUNK 265 

are given the respite until we reach Yang-tsun, 
below.” 

But the accusing courier was not satisfied. Point- 
ing at Ned Pevear he broke out into new accusa- 
tions. 

“ But this other foreign devil,” he said laying 
upon Ned’s breast a threatening hand which the lad 
angrily threw off. “ He is no drillmaster. He is — ” 
and before Ned or the Captain could interfere, with 
another rough grasp he had torn open Ned’s dis- 
guise of Chinese uniform and snatching off his cap 
had uncovered his tell-tale hair. “ See, I knew it ! ” 
he said. “This is a fugitive from Prince Tuan’s pal- 
ace. He is a messenger from the legations who 
wrestled with the great prince himself on the race- 
course and fled away with Prince Tuan’s great black 
horse. I saw him there. I saw him escape. It is 
death to him — death and the torture, if the Prince 
capture him again.” 

Ned could only understand that it was his turn 
now, but again he relied upon his German friend 
as his main chance. 

The Captain made swift reply. 

“ The soldier is but a son of lies — or else a fool,” 
he said to the Chinese officer. “ This younger 
brother is my assistant; he was the guest of the 
Prince Tuan. Does the great prince wrestle with his 
enemies or lend to them his great black charger on 


266 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


the race course? Foolish one, did not the Prince 
Tuan do both with this one? ” 

And he kept his hand still upon the lad’s shoulder. 

“ Fie did, but—” 

“ Hearken to the spy,” cried the German drill- 
master. “ He says yes to my demand. Beware, 
Excellent Commander. Touch not the friend and 
guest of Prince Tuan, our great general. For this 
insult to my assistant, the prince will have vengeance 
on this spy of the foreigners and even upon you.” 

Again the accusing and baffled guardsman was 
forced to take a back seat, as the puzzled Chinese 
officer waved both the disputants aside and declared 
his intention of letting the matter rest until he could 
lay it for decision before the viceroy Yu-lu at Yang- 
tsun. 

Once more the German captain dropped beside his 
friend on the deck of the river junk and detailing the 
accusation and relief, added, “ And thus, dear lad, 
are we once again respited until we reach Yang-tsun. 
And there—” 

“ Well, and there?” 

“ It shall be as we shall see,” the German replied. 
“This viceroy, Yu-lu, is a shrewd yet timid one. 
Who knoweth, perhaps we may still work through in 
safety. It is worth the trying, yes ? ” 

“ While there’s life, there’s hope,” returned Ned. 


WHAT HAPPENED ON THE JUNK 267 

“ Bring on your viceroy. I’ll risk you, Cap’n, I 
reckon, against twenty viceroys.” 

Down the tortuous Pei-ho, twisting and turning, 
the river junks impelled by the strong arms of the 
coolie boatmen and the great square sails that swung 
above them, one to each junk, floated swiftly on. 
Soon the banks of the river seemed to be alive with 
people; bodies of troops were hastening one way; 
streams of fugitives were hurrying the other and far 
ahead the quick ear of the young American scout and 
messenger could catch, first faintly and then more 
distinctly a noise he knew full well. 

“ Hark ! did you hear that, Cap’n ? ” he cried in a 
hoarse whisper. “ It’s the boom of big guns. It’s our 
boys, I know. Hey ! hurrah for our side ; the allies 
are on the march.” 

The commander of the Chinese detachment heard 
it, too. 

“ A battle,” he said. 

“ As I told you, Exalted Commander,” the captain 
replied. “ Now, whom do you believe. You have 
Prince Tuan’s orders. Press on and join your 
brothers, who, yonder are driving the foreigners 
back to the sea.” 

Nearer and nearer came the noise of battle. The 
boom and yap of the cannons and the rapid fire guns 
told that the fight was on, and just beyond the junks 


268 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


were now descried above the corn-fields the low 
roofs of Yang-tsun. 

At once the boats were driven ashore and the sol- 
diers disembarked. Still guarded by a special squad 
the semi-prisoners were hurried from the river bank 
to the town and even while Ned, feverish in his de- 
sire to join the allied fighters, was contemplating 
some rapid dash for liberty the guard and the com- 
mander halted before an open house of the better 
sort. 

A portly Chinese official stood in the doorway; 
before him the commander of the soldiers from the 
junks bowed low. 

The German captain gave a low, inaudible whistle 
and clutched Ned Pevear’s arm. 

“ It is the viceroy Yu-lu,” he said. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


THE COURIER OF PRINCE TUAN. 

There was a rapid interchange of query and reply. 
Upon the face of the viceroy a troubled expression, 
and what Ned called a far-away look, were ap- 
parent. He seemed to have one ear to the distant 
firing and one to the commander’s report. Finally, 
he turned his eyes upon the four disputants. 

“ Couriers from the Prince Tuan, you say, with 
differing orders?” he remarked, “and these,” indi- 
cating Ned and the captain — “are foreign devils? 
Kill them both — or stay,” he added, as the Ger- 
man strode boldly before him and was about to 
launch forth a protest and defiance ; “ where two 
dangers threaten avoid both. Could I know which 
way matters were going where the great guns are 
booming I might decide this. But if the foreigners 
come this way it is wiser to show mercy to their 
brothers here. Bring them into the yamen. Let 
those other couriers go free. In times of doubt favor 
both sides.” 

The commander of the detachment which Captain 
Ullman, the German, had so boldly and bodily stolen 
269 


270 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


from its post of duty did not look as if, after all, his 
Exalted Excellency the viceroy had shown himself 
to be so wise an official as he was reported; for the 
commander was puzzled as to just where his duty 
lay; with two rival couriers, giving utterly opposite 
orders and claiming each as the order of his chief, 
Prince Tuan, the Chinese official was in a quandary* 
and he told the viceroy as much. 

Boom, boom ! bang, bang ! came the hoarse sounds 
of the strife from beyond Yang-tsun. The viceroy’s 
look was that of the anxious and troubled man. 

“ Meanwhile, valiant fighter of the Prince,” he 
said, “ it is best not to lead your men anywhere. 
Keep them here to guard my legation until we see 
whether our brothers or the foreign devils win. 
Then will I give you new orders. It may be you 
will be needed to conduct these couriers of the prince, 
if such they be, to the presence of the General Tung- 
fuh-chan who leads our valiant ones, let us hope, to 
victory.” 

As, within the temporary yamen of the viceroy in 
the village of Yang-tsun, the two suspected “ cou- 
riers ” awaited under guard, the outcome of the duel 
of the guns, Ned declared to the captain his unwill- 
ingness to remain thus quiet while the battle was on. 

“ Our boys are putting in their best work down 
the river, I know, and we ought to be with them,” 
he grumbled. “ Come ! Cap’n, you’ve brought us so 


THE COURIER OF PRINCE TUAN 


271 


far, can’t you stretch things a bit farther and get us 
inside our own lines ? ” 

The captain had already explained to him the situ- 
ation they were in and had rendered briefly in Eng- 
lish the talk with and of the viceroy. He shrugged 
his shoulders over the young American’s demand. 

“ As how ? ” he said, “ we have, as you say, my 
friend, brought ourselves thus far in safety, but by 
what manoeuvres and at what risks? Our luck fa- 
vored us. Do you think it is to continue without 
break or what you call let-up, no ? ” 

“ Never can tell till you try,” said Ned confi- 
dently. 

“ And perhaps tell the other thing, eh ? ” the cap- 
tain said, shaking his head doubtfully, and yet, as 
Ned knew, thinking the problem out. “ Here are, 
we know not how many thousands of Chinese troops 
between us and the allies. Would you then walk 
•through their ranks as quietly and safely as if you 
were stepping off to the church on the Sabbath morn- 
ing? Nein, Nein, that were — ach — der dummdveist 
— the part of foolishness. But wait, but wait — let — - 
me — think. Ach ! so. It is for me best to stay here. 
I am not yet, perhaps, what they call persona grata 
with the allied leaders, save as you could explain. 
This viceroy, Yu-lu, as you may see, is a coward. 

' See now! if I can but get from him the permission, 
the order to pass you to the headquarters of the 


272 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Chinese general — the commander at the front, Tung- 
fuh-Chan, could you, think you, manage to lose the 
headquarters and stumble into the camp of the allies ? 
Could you not, yes ? ” 

Ned fairly hugged his German friend. 

“ Could I not, Cap’n? ” he cried. “ Just you get 
me that pass and try me. You know I always am 
stupid over the Chinese lingo. I’m really afraid I 
shall lose Mr. Tung-fuh-Chan’s headquarters if 
I’m turned loose to find ’em. But I’d like to try.” 

The German captain laid a finger on his lips and 
a hand on the young American’s arm and led him 
towards the entrance to the viceroy’s private room. 

“We would speak with his exalted Excellency,” 
he said to the guard and pushed through into the 
apartment of the viceroy. 

That noble official was listening at the open win- 
dow, intent upon the distant firing. His servants 
were packing and cording bales and boxes of per- 
sonal belongings, as if preparing for flight, while on 
the table, near to which the listening viceroy stood, 
Ned noticed a row of small bottles or vials filled with 
a dark liquid. 

The viceroy turned swiftly about as the German 
and American pushed into the private room and has- 
tily thrust forward a hand for one of the vials. He 
opened his mouth as if to speak, but the German 
captain gave him no opportunity. 


THE COURIER OF PRINCE TUAN 273 

“ O noble and exalted one,” he said, “ the orders 
of Prince Tuan must be obeyed. And this for your 
security as well. Bid my brother courier here has- 
ten to the general at the front with tidings of our 
reinforcements from Prince Tuan, who under your 
orders, O wise viceroy, remain here at Yang-tsun as 
reserve in case of need. Under your valiant orders, 
the general will know how well his rear is guarded 
and also that he has reserves to depend upon at need. 
I, who am drillmaster in the emperor’s service will 
remain with you as hostage for my young brother 
and, perhaps, to be of service to you in case the need 
exists, and the foreigners break through our ranks 
and flank you here in your yamen. But of that there 
is little danger. Through our ranks of brave, fight- 
ing men, led by wise ones such as you, exalted one, 
no foreigners may ever hope to pass. But — what 
wisdom said your excellency — ‘ in time of doubt 
favor both sides.’ Favor us both, O wise one; let 
my brother speed with his word from Prince Tuan; 
keep me here as hostage, and as one who by speaking 
the speech of the foreigner may be of service to you, 
here in your honorable yamen.” 

The timid viceroy who assumed to be a hero 
looked shrewdly at the German drill-master. 

“ Your counsel is of good sound,” he said at 
length. “ Go forth, messenger from the Prince 
Tuan. Let this be your permit through our 


274 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

ranks,” and he signed what Ned called his laundry- 
ticket. 

“ Bid the brave General Tung-fuh-Chan to stand 
firm against the foreign devils, but — but bid him let 
me know in all good season how the battle goes. It 
is not . meet for one in my station to remain and fall 
into the hands of those miserable barbarians from 
over the seas/’ 

Captain Ullman rapidly conveyed to Ned the 
orders of the viceroy. 

“ Farewell, dear lad,” he said. “ Speak well of me 
to the leaders of the allies. It is with them I have 
been ever, though against me seemed the circum- 
stances. I will so frighten this coward viceroy that 
none of the Chinese soldiers here in Yang-tsun shall 
be sent to the front, and if the allies win through, 
speak you for me, and let me once more be under the 
flag of the Fatherland. Hoch der Kaiser! ” 

A few more words of farewell, one more pressure 
of the hand, a last word of caution and advice, and 
the German was left behind in the yamen of the 
viceroy, while Ned Pevear, still in the uniform of 
Prince Tuan’s mounted guard was speeding through 
Yang-tsun, steering his course, by the spasmodic 
booming of the rival guns to liberty or death — he 
knew not which. 

Ned knew something of Yang-tsun. He had been 
there, you remember, in his very first fight on Chinese 


THE COURIER OF PRINCE TUAN 275 

soil, when he and the British sergeant of marines 
went scouting in a hand car, and he remembered that 
the river and the road ran parallel for several 
miles. 

But whether river or road was his safest highway 
he could not yet say. For three miles and more, to 
the right and left, the Chinese battle line extended, 
the thousands of reserves bunched back near to a 
little village just to the south of Yang-tsun, while 
from behind the railroad embankment as a breast- 
work the dozen or more big guns of the Chinese 
artillery kept up the boom and crash that guided 
Ned’s forward march and fell so ominously on the 
ears of Yu-lu, the viceroy in Yang-tsun. 

Back from Tien-tsin, back from Peit-sang, the 
Chinese thousands had fallen as the allies advanced, 
and here at the village that hid the approach to 
Yang-tsun they had massed for a final resistance. 

Ned held his way at the jog trot of the official 
runner, straight through the restless thousands of the 
Chinese host, his pass in readiness for every ques- 
tion, his tongue silent even when his business was 
demanded. The Chinese general, so he learned from 
the pointing rather than the words that replied to his 
inquiring exhibition of the viceroy’s pass, was near 
the battery behind the railway embankment so that 
direction was the one that the young American 
avoided. Keeping far to the left, through bayonet- 


276 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


like fields of kowliang, or broom corn, the agile youth 
dodged and dashed, avoiding all moving bodies of 
troops as best he could and straining his eyes for 
something that fluttered that was not a Chinese flag 
or banner. 

Of Chinese banners he had seen, as he declared, 
enough to make one dead tired. This way and that, 
over the bare plain and through the high broom corn, 
marching and countermarching as if to overawe the 
foreign devils with a display of strength, the gaudy 
banners of the Chinese host fluttered and flaunted in 
the bright sunlight, very theatrical looking, but, so 
it seemed to Ned, to no real effect. 

He was very near to the battle line now. Could 
he dash across? he wondered. Edging to the 
left where the trampled and prostrate corn stalks 
gave an open vision across the lines he looked off 
through the corn. And then his heart thrilled with 
joy; for there, not two hundred yards away from the 
line of the Chinese trenches, he saw a moving col- 
umn and a fluttering flag that he felt sure was the 
stars and stripes. 

He would find out at all events. The day was 
broiling hot; the enemy were fiercely determined to 
make a stubborn stand; the boom of gun and the 
storm of shrapnel from the allied batteries kept the 
Chinese dodging and “ kotowing,” but Ned, heed- 
less as ever, determined to brave the storm of shot 


THE COURIER OF PRINCE TUAN 


277 


and shell and, unmindful of the blazing sun, make a 
dash for the allied lines. 

Already there was, even to his anxious eyes, 
uneasiness and indecision in the movements of the 
Chinese troops; a confusion of orders, a weakening 
of backbone, a rushing this way and that of regular 
and irregular troops convinced Ned that a taste of 
the allied steel would break the last vestige of 
Chinese discipline. He must be the messenger to 
carry that assurance. 

Determined to be cautious in spite of his anxiety, 
Ned edged still further to the left to clear, if he could, 
the range of the cross fire. Then, with one more 
glance through the bending corn to see that the coast 
was clear the American made a forward leap and 
sprang — straight into the rushing ranks of the 
trained Imperial troops of the Dragon-flag. 

He had struck the extreme left of the Chinese line, 
as it swung around to stiffen the defenders of the 
trenches in the centre and repel any forward dash of 
the allies. 

For just one instant Ned’s heart was in his mouth. 
To be stopped on the very verge of liberty! it was 
maddening. Then, swiftly, his fear turned to rage, 
his rage to inspiration, as, fluttering the viceroy’s 
pass as though he were the aid of the commander 
and bore his orders, he shouted out, “ Tuan, Tuan! 
death to the Yang-kwei-tzse! ” 


278 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Ned was very indistinct with his English words, 
but most emphatic with his Chinese. The fluttering 
paper, the name of the great prince, the defiance to 
the “ foreign devils ” — the Yang-kwei-tsze — came 
to the ears of the hurrying Imperial troops almost as 
a command and hundreds of them wheeling out of 
the ranks, clubbed their mannlichers as weapons of 
attack and followed at the heels of him whom they 
took to be an aid to the Prince Tuan. 

But the Chinese, as you know, were, as Ned de- 
clared, never built for charging; and when from the 
centre of the allied line came a stir and motion that 
looked like retaliating measures, the hundreds of 
Imperials dropped to fifties and to tens and, finally, 
the “ aid ” who led the charging was dashing on — 
alone. 

Still above his head he waved the viceroy’s pass, 
as if it were a message and his young voice rose 
sharp and clear in a real Yankee yell. Bullets from 
Chinese mannlichers, bullets from allied mausers 
piffed and sang past him; but he ran on unharmed, 
until suddenly, in the clogging, searching sand of the 
dry and dusty field, he made a misstep and fell flat on 
his face, the viceroy’s pass flying from his hands. 

It was a rather ignominious ending to his grand 
dash for liberty, but Ned scrambled to his feet again 
and stood, just a bit dazed from his fall, until he 
could once more get his bearings. 


THE COURIER OF PRINCE TUAN 279 

As he looked, a thrill of great joy aroused him to 
a new excitement and enthusiasm, for, almost dead 
ahead, straight toward him, almost in line, came a 
dashing, rushing, overwhelming mass of khaki and 
campaign hats that Ned recognized at once. 

“ Hurrah, hurrah ! ” he shouted. “ ’Rah, ’rah, 
’rah ! It’s our boys, charging the Chinese. Go in, 
boys, go in, and win ; I’ll bet on you ! ’Rah for the 
stars and stripes ! ” 

And he swung Prince Tuan’s guardsman’s cap 
excitedly about his head. 

Straight on came that splendid rush, the charge of 
the Fourteenth United States, Colonel Daggett in 
the lead. One of the rushing line, seeing a single 
Chinaman in the Imperial uniform standing alone 
in the way, and shouting excitedly, snapped his pistol 
at the lad; but Ned sprang out of range and flinging 
both hands in air, shouted “ Don’t shoot, boys; don’t 
shoot me! I’m one of you. I’m a runner from 
the legations ! ” 

Another rousing Yanke cheer burst out, a cheer of 
welcome and of power, that struck terror into the 
bannermen behind the Chinese trenches and gave a 
forward impetus to the dashing charge. 

A sergeant sprang from the plunging ranks and 
grabbed the boy by the arm. 

“ To the rear, to the rear, lad,” he cried. “ Get 
out of our way, we’ve work on hand.” 


28 o 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Let me go in with you, sergeant,” cried Ned. 
“ I’ll give ’em one for all we’ve suffered. Let me 
give ’em one for the legationers.” 

Another cheer echoed his speech. 

“ Great Scott ! lad, but' you’re a daisy,” said the 
sergeant. “ In you go,” and he almost flung the 
boy, as he ran, into the second rank. “ Are you all 
safe in Pekin ? ” 

“ Safe when I left, but waiting for you,” answered 
Ned breathlessly, at the same time flinging off the 
skirt and jacket of Prince Tuan’s uniform. “ Lend 
me a pistol, somebody. I haven’t a thing. The 
Chinese have looted all my belongings. Hey, Hey ! 
now we go it. They’re breaking already. Let me 
give ’em one for luck.” 

Straight at the center of the foe sprang the Four- 
teenth in that superb charge. 

“ At ’em ! Down they go ! ” shouted the colonel. 

“ Now then,” cried the sergeant. “ Hike it up, 
boys! We’ll git the day’s work over before dark.” 

In they went; on they rushed, a resistless thou- 
sand in blue and khaki, before whom no Chinese 
troops, thousands though they were, could stand 
with equanimity. 

There were a few useless shots from the Chinese 
lines; then the wavering yellow ranks and clumps, 
the fluttering banners, the spiteful guns at the 
trenches, turned before the rush could reach them 



u Don’t shoot, boys; I’m one of you.” 






















. 



























THE COURIER OF PRINCE TUAN 281 


and in great clouds of dust, in broken array and with 
shrieks of fear the whole Chinese army of Tung- 
fuh-Chan, the resistless general, turned in flight and 
rushed madly for safety, beyond the flat roofs of 
Yang-tsun. 

The charge was over; the foemen were dispersed; 
the victorious Fourteenth would have kept on 
“ straight to Pekin,” so the sergeant declared. But 
their work was done; the bugle sounded the recall 
and beside the captured trenches of Yang-tsun the 
hot and tired men, with a great cheer of triumph 
dropped at rest, awaiting further orders. 

“ How are you, heathen Chinee? ” cried one of the 
men, as he dropped to earth and pulled Ned down 
beside him. “ The old Fourteenth didn’t wait for 
a second invitation, did they, hey, boy ? ” 

“You bet they didn’t,” replied Ned; “but I 
emptied all my cartridges at ’em,” he said, as he held 
up his smoking pistol. “ Whew — but that was a 
run. Hello, what’s that ? Who’s firing at us ? Are 
there any Chinks left ? ” 

“ Chinks ? Chinks be blowed ! ” cried the soldier. 
“That’s no Chinese fire. That’s from our folks. 
Hey! stop it, stop it there. You’re shelling your 
friends.” 

“Somebody’s firing shrapnel from the rear; they 
don’t know it’s all over,” said the sergeant angrily. 
“ Now, who in the dickens— I’ll bet it’s them Rus- 


282 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


sians; they’re always up to some fool thing. Hey! 
tell ’em to stop it. Blast ’em, they’re plowing right 
into us.” 

Whoever was sending those shots from the rear 
was indeed “plowing into ” the victorious Four- 
teenth. The soldier beside whom Ned had dropped, 
rolled over with a yell and a torn shoulder; seven 
more went down, even as the horrified Ned struggled 
to his feet ; three dead and four wounded by the fire 
of their friends. Such things have happened before ; 
it is one of the blunders of war ; and in this case The 
victims had almost brought the horror upon them- 
selves, for their charge was over even before the 
British artillerists — for British they were — had 
their guns in position to cover the gallant charge. 

The colonel sent his staff hurrying back to stop the 
slaughter; but before the British gunners had seen 
their mistake twelve great shells had torn into the 
ranks of the Fourteenth and nearly forty men had 
gone down, dead or wounded. 

“ Throwing off his masquerading “ pig tail,” Ned 
snatched up a discarded campaign hat, for the sun 
was beating down fiercely upon the exposed troops, 
and forgetting his own business, joined the group 
of the rushing aids and orderlies and dashed back to 
the allied lines to stop the British shells. 

He came near stopping one with his own life, as he 
ran; but with his usual good fortune he dodged in 


THE COURIER OF PRINCE TUAN 283 

time and when the firing ceased he turned to where 
on the allied right, he recognized the well-known 
khaki of the Marines and dashing straight for them, 
well nigh spent, he fell in a faint almost at the feet of 
his old friend, Captain Marshall and his cheering 
battalion. 

“ Great old charge, that, eh ? ” said the captain, as 
the lad dropped at his feet. “ Used you up, did it? 
Here ! you get into the shade. Lucky for you some 
of those British shells didn’t rip you up the back. 
Bad blunder that; but you’re all right now, eh? 
Why, hullo, what’s your uniform? Where’s your 
khaki? Hanged if this isn’t a Chinese rig you’ve 
got on, all but your hat. Major, see here, sir; what 
do you make of this ? ” 

He pulled off the campaign hat that covered Ned’s 
black hair ; he turned the boy over and looked at him 
critically. 

“ Great Scott ! ” he almost shouted. “ It’s that 
kid again, and in one of the Imperial uniforms. 
Ned, lad; Ned,” he cried, kneeling down beside the 
boy. “ Are you hurt ; are you sunstruck ; are you — 
great Heavens ! lad, where do you come from ? ” 

The cooling drink, the tender hand, brought the 
exhausted lad to his senses. Opening his eyes he 
looked into the captain’s anxious ones with a 
smile of recognition. Then his hand went up in 
salute. 


284 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Em — Em all right, all right, I reckon, Captain,” 
he said. “ I will be in a minute. Eve run their 
lines, sir. I’m from the legations at Pekin.” 


CHAPTER XVII 


“ ON TO PEKIN ” 

“ From the legations; you, Ned? ” came the cap- 
tain’s surprised query. '‘Why how, lad? And 
when ? ” 

But there came no reply; the boy had swooned 
again. 

The surgeon bent over him. 

“ Heat prostration and over-excitement, Captain,” 
he said. “ He’ll come ’round as right as a trivet in 
a little while. Get him to the hospital, some of you, 
and I’ll have a look at him. We’ll have our hands 
full pretty soon with those victims of the British 
shells. A shame, wasn’t it? And after such a 
superb charge. By George ! I’m proud of the Four- 
teenth — and all our boys.” 

“ Including this one, if he has come all the way 
from Pekin,” said Captain Marshall. “ Get him to 
the hospital tent, boys, and I’ll report to General 
Chaffee.’'’ 

That indomitable fighter and splendid soldier 
when he learned of the surprising arrival of an 
American from the beleaguered legations, just in 
285 


286 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


time to join in the dramatic charge of the Four- 
teenth, made his way to the field hospital under a 
clump of trees, already filling up with sun-struck 
men and the fifty or more victims of the Yang-tsun 
fight. 

“ Your friend the volunteer aid, is it? ” the gen- 
eral said as he looked into Ned’s unconscious face. 
“ The chap who was with Lawton in Luzon and with 
Roberts in the Transvaal? I’ve heard about him. 
Bright chap, but always getting into scrapes. Well, 
that’s the kind they make men of. Look after him, 
Surgeon, and let me know when he’s fit to talk. I 
want to get the latest from Pekin.” 

And laying a hand on the boy’s heated head he 
passed on, to pause an instant beside the other 
stricken forms in that improvised hospital ; and then 
he sought his own headquarters, a hundred yards 
away, where his “ strikers ” were preparing his din- 
ner and, already, signalmen and coolies were string- 
ing the wires that connected the allied advance with 
Tongku and the rest of the world. 

But when Ned had recovered and was able to go 
before the general with the latest from Pekin he 
found that, after all, there were tidings even later 
than he had brought. His delay at the palace of 
Prince Tuan, his manifold adventures as he and the 
German captain had wormed their way through the 
Chinese lines, and his final detention in the yamen 


“ON TO PEKIN ” 


287 


of the viceroy at Yang-tsun had all consumed so 
much time that a later messenger from the be- 
leaguered ones had been before him; for, that very 
day, a Chinese coolie, allowing himself to fall in the 
hands of the Japanese outpost, had taken from the 
lining of his sandal two little pieces of paper. One 
was from the Japanese and the other from the Ameri- 
can minister and both told the same tidings, that the 
legations were still safe though fighting perpetually, 
with supplies for ten days and an earnest message to 
the allies for haste, haste ! 

But Ned’s news was quite as important, for it gave 
details which the coolie could not. He wished to see 
that coolie, however, and when he had been dis- 
missed, with an equal amount of compliments and 
cautions, from the presence of the general, Ned 
started inquiries for “ that coolie.” 

It was of small avail. In an army of twenty 
thousand soldiers of mixed nationalities, to say noth- 
ing of coolies and camp followers, a hunt for an 
unknown coolie is like the proverbial search for a 
needle in a hay stack and Ned was obliged to give 
it up. 

But when, at Captain Marshall’s order, Ned ac- 
companied the friendly officer of marines to de- 
serted Yang-tsun, now occupied by “ foreign devils ” 
and garrisoned by the French marines, Ned was 
equally startled and surprised to receive a hail from 


288 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


one of the native huts of Yang-tsun, and the next in- 
stant he was shaking hands with the Omaha mer- 
chant, Mr. Wong Lee. 

“ Then you — you were the coolie from Pekin,” 
cried Ned. “ Somehow I thought of you, but the 
last time I saw you was when you were Prince 
Ching’s messenger and turned me loose from Prince 
Tuan’s race course. Tell me all about it.” 

Thereupon the Omaha merchant told his Ameri- 
can friend how it all came to pass. It seems that 
when Ned went, as his friends in Pekin believed, to 
his death because he had made a promise, they set to 
work to devise means for his safety. But none 
seemed feasible, though the ministers prepared a 
note of warning, and the commander-in-chief of the 
handful of defenders was ready to exchange pris- 
oners three to one. Then the Omaha merchant de- 
cided to take things into his own hand, and after 
conference with the German captain they both dis- 
appeared over the wall and, by way of the moat and 
their ready wit and tongues, found hiding in the 
Tartar city. Here, by the sovereign use of cash and 
their former business and military connections, the 
Omaha merchant reappeared in the Pekin streets as 
the messenger from Prince Ching to Prince Tuan, 
while the German drill master, in the uniform of an 
Imperial courier of Prince Tuan’s body guard rode 
the streets of the Tartar city on the lookout for an 


“ ON TO PEKIN " 289 

escaping American whom his friend Wong hoped to 
free. / 

“ So it came out right, at last, my brother," the 
Chinaman said ; “ but where is our friend, the drill- 
master ? ” 

“ I left him in this very village," Ned replied, 
“ keeping guard over the viceroy Yu-lu, or a pris- 
oner, I can't say which ; where is the house ? v 

They searched the straggling low-roofed town 
and at last Ned recognized the house which the 
viceroy had converted into his temporary yamen. 

“ This is it; I know it, now," Ned exclaimed and 
the two friends pushed into the building. 

It was deserted; no servant or coolie, no guards- 
man or runner, no Chinese viceroy or German drill- 
master was found within, alive or dead. But Ned 
was struck, as he pushed into the apartment which 
he remembered as the private room of the viceroy, 
to find beneath the open window through which the 
viceroy had listened to the distant sounds of battle, 
the vials which he recalled as near to the viceroy's 
hand. And the little bottles were empty. 

He called the merchant's attention to these, and 
the Chinaman raised them one after the other to his 
nose and snuffed at their emptiness. 

“ Ei, arsenic," he said. “ The viceroy, Yu-lu, was 
never a hero. When your fighters, in the charge 
that seemed so full of death, rushed upon the de- 


290 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


fences and defenders of Yang-tsun, Yu-lu believed 
that he saw himself a prisoner in the hands of the 
foreigners and took his Honorable and Exalted body 
out of the trouble by means of those bottles of ar- 
senic.” 

“ Killed himself? ” exclaimed Ned. 

“ Why not ? ” the Chinaman replied. “ Suicide 
is more honorable than capture. The viceroy must 
keep his ‘ face 9 even though he kill himself — as he 
doubtless has.” 

And again he tapped the empty bottles signifi- 
cantly. 

“ And Ullman — the captain — where is he ? Did 
that villain of a craven viceroy make him take the 
arsenic, too? ” demanded Ned. 

“ It may be, — who shall say? ” the Chinaman re- 
plied. “ Things are not here as in our America, my 
son, and the viceroy perhaps invited our friend the 
German to an honorable taking-off.” 

“ By George ! I hope not,” exclaimed horrified 
Ned. “ I call such an invitation a regular heathen — 
I beg your pardon — regular low-down trick, not 
countenanced by civilized nations or people.” 

“ From your standpoint, perhaps, yes,” replied the 
Chinaman, “but are you the judge? Other lands 
have other customs you know and have I not said 
my China is not our America? ” 

“ But if they had a — suicide bee, here,” queried 


“ ON TO PEKIN 


291 


Ned, “ where — where are they all? We don’t see 
anything of them.” 

“ Neither do you see any of the viceroy’s goods, 
my son,” the Omaha merchant replied. “ The val- 
iant Yu-lu has done everything in regulation fash- 
ion and departing from a house not his own has 
passed out of the world or been borne away, after 
emptying those bottles, as an exalted one of China 
should — like a gentleman.” 

Ned shook his head. 

“ Well, it’s a queer world — this China — that’s all 
I can say,” he mused. “ But I would like to know 
what has become of the captain.” 

There was not much time to search or speculate 
longer; for Captain Marshall having made his ob- 
servations returned to General Chaffee to report, 
taking Ned Pevear with him. But the Omaha mer- 
chant remained in Yang-tsun. 

The Chinaman had, however, given the latest from 
the legations, from which as a coolie he had come 
with the message to the allies. He told the Ameri- 
can how at last the Tsung-li-yamen had allowed a 
cablegram from Washington to go to the American 
minister and how the minister had replied; how the 
Tsung-li-yamen sent to the besieged fruit, flour and 
vegetables, which the legationers at first regarded 
with suspicion, but finally tried without being pois- 
oned; how the Dutch interpreter, Duysberg crawled 


292 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


out beyond the barriers and came back with a lot of 
ammunition and one good gun, stolen away almost 
under the noses of the besieging Chinese ; and how 
the Boxers tried to undermine the Russian legation 
but were driven back by the marines, with whom, so 
he told Ned to the lad’s great joy, his friend, the 
English lad, Tom Dickson, had gone as a volunteer, 
had charged with them against the retreating Box- 
ers and captured still more powder for the legation 
ammunition chest.” 

“Good for Tom,” cried Ned enthusiastically. 
“ And the yungvrouw Lizbet — the Dutchman’s 
daughter — what of her, my friend ? ” 

But here the Chinaman’s information failed. Like 
most of his countrymen he did not regard women 
highly enough to follow their doings, and he could 
only “ suppose she was safe,” as none of the foreign 
refugees, so he said, had died or disappeared up to 
the day of his leaving. 

So Ned went back to the camp with Captain Mar- 
shall, cheered by the news he had heard and yet a 
trifle disgusted because the Chinaman had not spe- 
cially sought out the yungvrouw and brought tid- 
ings of her safety. 

He was all the more anxious to move forward. 

“ On to Pekin ! ” he cried, “ How soon do we go 
there, Captain ? ” 

“ Patience, patience, dear boy,” Captain Marshall 


“ ON TO PEKIN ” 


2 93 


replied. “ Do you think we are out for a pleasure 
promenade? We’re not here for our health; we’re 
here for business, and an army of twenty thousand 
is not easily moved forward in the enemy’s country. 
The generals are in conference now. In an hour 
we shall know what we shall know. And our men 
are dead tired. Twenty-five miles in forty-eight 
hours under a sun that was worse than the Philip- 
pines and with two fights thrown in is a great record. 
So, hold your horses; we’ll be on the march soon 
enough to suit even a restless wanderer like you, 
who don’t seem to mind even a sunstroke.’ , 

Sure enough, in an hour’s time, Ned did learn the 
result of the conference of the generals. 

“ We are to push on at all cost,” Captain Marshall 
reported, and Ned, now invested once more with the 
blue and khaki, “ like a Christian ” he said, indulged 
in a joyful hurrah. 

“ Push it is,” he said, “ and give me a chance at it, 
too, won’t you, Cap’n. I’ve just lots of things to 
square up with those Chinks, and my aim is pretty 
good with a mauser.” 

But it so happened that Ned Pevear was not to 
have any call for his mauser, except to register his 
protest against certain of the lawless ones in the 
allied ranks who disgraced the name of Christian 
soldiers by deeds of violence against the poor 
frightened Chinese men, women and children 


294 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

who trusted to their honor and came across their 
path. 

From Tien Tsin to Yang-tsun, to Ho-si-wu and 
Mah-to, to Chang-Chia-wan and at last to Tung- 
Chow the allied flags pressed forward, and not a 
Chinese force disputed the advance. The charge 
of the Fourteenth was the last pitched battle between 
Yang-tsun and Tung-Chow, and the only enemies 
the allies found to wrestle with were the withering 
heat, the choking dust, and the deadly weariness 
that comes of rapid marching under exhausting con- 
ditions. 

Even Ned’s feet grew tired and his spirits drooped 
under this ceaseless advance. 

‘‘Talk about relieving Pekin; who’s going to re- 
lieve us ? ” grumbled one of his chums in the fight- 
ing Fourteenth. 

“ Get up and mosey along, you hobo,” growled 
Ned’s old friend the sergeant who had picked him 
up in the charge, as he fairly “ yanked ” the tired 
grumbler from the ground where he had thrown 
himself. “ Get up and hike it on. You don’t know 
what marching is. The only way to get you to march 
is to let you straggle out in the fields and roast corn 
and tell you there’s a good barn to sleep in where 
we’re going to camp. Why, Jonesy, old boy, I just 
mosey along, not thinking I’m in China, but 
imagine I’m strolling in the shade of the barracks at 


“ ON TO PEKIN 


2 95 


old Fort Riley. Hike along or I’ll get a club and 
make a soldier of you. You bet there won’t be a 
man of you falling out when we march into Pekin! 
You’ll all want to see the show then.” 

So discipline conquered grumbling, and the tired 
army moved on, British and Yankee fighters grum- 
bling the most but “ getting there ” just the same — 
their only rivals in push, but without a grumble, 
being the wiry little Japs, spurred on by the restless 
energy of their leader, the tireless, determined Fuku- 
shima. 

It was on one of the hottest days of the hot march 
that Ned was ordered to convey a message to the 
Japanese commander and, panting and weary-eyed, 
delivered it. 

The courteous leader, as he returned his answer, 
noticed the “ tired look ” that lined the face of the 
messenger. 

“ The American feels the Chinese heat, eh ? ” he 
said, with a smile and in excellent English. “ Try to 
keep up your spirit — we’ll get there at last, my lad.” 

Ned saluted. 

“ I know it, sir,” he said. “But you have marched 
us pretty hard, General, and — we’re all of us very 
tired.” 

The remorseless Japanese smiled again, and some- 
how his smile reassured and enlivened the wearied 
American. 


9 6 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ Ah, yes,” he said, “ we are tired ; but the enemy, 
he is very tired too. We are hot; but the Chinese, 
they are hot, too. And, listen, my son, the enemy, 
he is scared; and we are not scared, eh? Is it not 
so? If we keep on, the enemy will only know that 
we are not scared; he will not know that we are 
tired. We shall be much stronger as he sees us than 
we really are; and his forces will scatter so that he 
will not dare even to make a determined stand before 
Pekin. Tell you that to your comrades, and it will 
march them into Pekin.” 

The argument was as sound as it was prophetic. 
It helped to brace up Ned Pevear, and he used it 
with good effect as he cheerily joined with his 
grumbling comrades and pushed up the stragglers. 

And so at last they came to Tung-Chow, only a 
dozen miles or so from Pekin, the city where the 
German drillmaster and his “ lieutenant ” Ned had 
stolen a Chinese detachment and led it away from its 
duty. 

Ned had never been able to square himself with 
his conscience over that questionable practise of 
Captain Ullman, with his false orders and what Ned 
styled his “ big whoppers ” and the way in which he 
overcame the Chinese officials by misleading and un- 
truthful statements. To Ned, who had been brought 
up to tell the truth and hate a lie, all this manoeu- 
vring had seemed wrong, even while he benefited 


ON TO PEKIN ” 


297 


by it, and the only way in which he could excuse him- 
self was to repeat the old proverb that “ all’s fair 
in war.” 

He had laid it before Captain Marshall with but 
little real satisfaction. 

“ That’s a hard question, Ned,” the captain said. 
“ It’s one of the demoralizations of war, you see. 
To gain an end we must often use questionable 
means — decoys — spies, and all that. You’ve got to 
baffle the enemy as well as bluff him, and such meas- 
ures as your German friend resorted to have their 
effect quite as much as that glorious charge of the 
Fourteenth in which you took a hand. It’s my idea 
that you’ll find even worse things to trouble you 
when this allied army is let loose in Pekin. What 
with Sikhs, and Rajputs, and Punjabis, and Cos- 
sacks and Annamites, to say nothing of the ‘Chris- 
tian ’ nations represented in our ranks by some very 
conscienceless scalawags, I’m afraid Pekin will see a 
sad exhibition of lawlessness and even murder — 
especially if anything has happened to the lega- 
tions.” 

“ But nothing has happened to them, Captain,” 
cried Ned, with falling heart; “ they’re all right yet; 
don’t you think so ? ” 

“ We can hope so, Ned,” the captain replied. 
“ But what do we really know? We haven’t really 
heard anything since your friend, the alleged coolie 


298 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


came into Yang-tsun with the message in his shoe. 
By the way, where is he now ? ” 

“ I’ve lost him again, Captain,” Ned replied. “ I 
have not seen him since we left Yang-tsun. He’s got 
something on his mind, I reckon. Perhaps he’s hunt- 
ing up my lost friend, the drill-master.” 

Thereupon the captain went off to wait for orders 
at the conference of the generals, and Ned, left to 
himself, wandered through the stone-walled “ port 
of Peking,” Tung-Chow, whose defenders had run 
away even before the Japanese advance could get a 
shot at them. But the Japs with a display of their 
exhaustless energy simply “ gun-cottoned ” the un- 
defended gate of Tung-Chow and blew it up, just in 
the way of a salute. 

The American lad walked through the deserted 
streets, empty save for the foreign soldiers who had 
come within the walls, and deserted by the terrified 
inhabitants as were all the towns and villages from 
Peitsang to Tun-Chow. Some of the soldiers were 
looting the houses, though, as there was little chance 
to carry anything away, the most of the “ relief 
force” was waiting for the greater opportunity to 
“ relieve ” the property owners of Pekin ; but looting 
had never had any attraction for Ned Pevear; in the 
first place it was not right ; and in the second place 
there were orders to respect private property which 
the Americans, at least, tried to obey. 


“ ON TO PEKIN ” 


299 


He was thinking of Tom Dickson and yung- 
vrouw Lizbet in Pekin, a dozen miles away, and hop- 
ing that the order to march would come speedily. 

Suddenly, as he was inspecting the closed front 
of one of the better class of residences, which seemed 
securely barricaded against visitors and looters, he 
heard a bar drop ; then a door opened cautiously and 
he saw a beckoning finger thrust out. 

Ned stopped; but he did not go in; he had learned 
wisdom from experience ; no more Chinese traps for 
him, he said. 

The door opened wider, and a face was thrust out. 

“ In brother; come in quietly, my friend,” came 
the invitation. “ Here is one for you to see.” And 
Ned, by no means surprised, for he was getting used 
to these sudden appearances of the Omaha merchant, 
entered without delay, and slipped in through the 
half-open door which was quickly closed and barred 
again after his entrance. 

“ I have found him,” Wong Lee said ; “ the drill- 
master, my friend; he has been calling for you and 
I knew not where to seek you.” 

“ Calling for me ? Captain Ullman ? Why, what 
is the matter?” demanded Ned. 

“ It is the end, I fear,” the Chinaman said. “ The 
viceroy, Yu-lu, tried to poison our friend when he 
conveyed himself out of danger and the world ; but 
the captain resisted and, set upon by the viceroy's 


3 °° 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


guards as a traitor to the Emperor he was badly 
wounded and was carried in the retreat as far as 
Tung-Chow, reserved for justice from Prince Tuan, 
whom he had misrepresented as a false courier. But 
the allies were too speedy, and when the Japanese ad- 
vance rushed upon Tung-Chow the soldiers fled in 
fright and our captain was forgotten. Here I found 
him for I have been searching for him and I have 
brought him here — to the house of one of my cor- 
respondents to which I found entrance. His old 
wounds, those which he received on the legation wall, 
are opened afresh, and with the new and the old he 
is fading away.” 

“ Great grief ! That’s too bad,” cried Ned. “ Hold 
on! Wong, let me out. I’ll get our surgeon and 
bring him here at once.” 

“ Too late, too late, my brother,” said the China- 
man sadly. “ Nothing can save him now. But he 
yearns for a sight of you. Come, come at once or it 
may be too late.” 

Stretched upon a pile of mats, laid upon the oven- 
like bed in one of the private apartments of the 
house, Ned found the captain. 

The poor man was near his last gasp, but he smiled 
upon the lad and stretched out a welcoming hand. 

“It is come — the end, Herr Ned,” he said; “but 
you are safe, yes? Have I not returned good for 
good to him who spared my life at Tien Tsin and 


“ ON TO PEKIN ” 


3 QI 


protected me from my own ? Dear lad, I thank you. 
But I — I led the Boxers ; if I might only see the flag 
of the Fatherland; if I could only die beneath it. 
Can you not perhaps bring me one, yes ? ” 

“ Let me bring a doctor, first, — our surgeon, 
Cap’n,” cried Ned with tear-filled eyes. 

“ No, no, Herr Ned,” came the pleading answer. 
“ For that it is now too late. The flag; the flag. 
See, I will live till it come to me,” and the dying man 
drew in a long breath of will as if to strengthen him. 

Ned rushed to the door, unbarred it and darted 
out, the Omaha merchant standing guard. He 
scarce knew what to do, for there were no Germans 
in the advance. But he blundered into the first squad 
of allies he saw, encamped in the streets of the town. 
They were Russians. 

“ Have you perhaps a German flag among your 
signals ? ” he inquired, first in English and then in 
uncertain French. 

“And for whom, little brother?” queried the 
Russian major. 

“ For one who dies saddened without a sight of it 
— a brave German. Haste, haste, I pray you. Have 
you it ? ” 

The major was turning over the camp chest. He 
flung out a tangle of flags of varying nationalities, 
and with a cry of satisfaction, Ned pounced upon a 
German ensign. 


302 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


“ May I? Will you lend it me? ” he asked. “ It 
shall come back at once/' 

“ Keep it, little brother,” said the major. “ Let 
it serve as shroud for him who, far from home, is 
loyal to his flag,” and raising his hat, the Russian 
bowed to the American, and Ned was soon speeding 
back to the bedside of the German captain. 

The dying man smiled as Ned approached him, the 
ensign in hand. 

“ And I knew he would find it ; I knew it,” Ullman 
said, half raising himself in the bed and pressing the 
flag to his lips. “ See, I have retrieved myself ; is it 
not so? I am no Boxer, no leader of foreign foes 
against my flag ; I have helped to save the legations ; 
I have revenged the death of the Minister of my 
Emperor ; I have aided you, my friend ; I die a Ger- 
man.” 

With feeble arm, strengthened for an instant by 
the excitement of the moment, the German drill- 
master of Chinese troops raised the flag and shook 
it feebly. " Germania! das Vaterland! Hoch der 
Kaiser! ” he cried, and dropped back — dead, the flag 
of his homeland falling across his breast. 

“ He has retrieved everything,” murmured Ned, 
tears standing in his eyes. “ Good-bye, Captain. 
You meant to do the best, sir.” 

And the living saluted the dead. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


WITHIN THE GATES 

The loud notes of a bugle broke suddenly upon 
the silence of the death chamber. Ned started from 
the bedside. 

“ It is the call for assembly/' he said ; “ it means 
off for Pekin and I must report to Captain Marshall 
at once. May I leave our friend in your charge, good 
Wong Lee? I will ask Captain Marshall to send a 
firing squad and have the captain buried like a 
soldier.” 

“ Your duty is yonder, my brother,” the Omaha 
merchant replied. “ Rest well in mind as to our 
friend here. I will see that he is put away with all 
respect, and if your worthy captain will see that he 
has the honors of a soldier, it will be but his deserts. 
For what said Confucius, the master ? ‘ When you 
have faults do not fear to abandon them.' Our 
friend did not fear; though misjudged he tried to 
do aright. He died with honor. It is to us a lesson 
also. Farewell, my young brother ; I will see to all 
here. We shall meet again, if all shall go well.” 

303 

' 


3 ° 4 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


Depressed, yet, somehow, uplifted by the solemn 
scene he had just witnessed, Ned wrung the China- 
man’s hand in farewell and hastened to Captain 
Marshall. 

He had conjectured rightly. That bugle call meant 
Pekin. By four roads in four columns the final ad- 
vance of the allies marched out from Tung-Chow. 
Chaffee and his Americans took the road to the south 
of the canal, while on the roadway south of them 
marched the British contingent, the jackies hauling 
the big guns on whose carriages was spread the an- 
nouncement: “ From Ladysmith to Pekin.” 

Both these roads led to the gates of the outer or 
Chinese city and Britishers and Yankees raced for 
the lead. 

Nearer and nearer they came; the words of the 
old sergeant of the Fourteenth to his “ hoboes ” as 
he spurred them on “ you bet there won’t be a man 
of you falling out the day we get to Pekin ” were 
prophetic ; every eye was clear, every step was brisk, 
and when Ned, listening for any sign of life ahead, 
caught the low, sullen, far-off boom of the guns he 
leaped with joy. 

“ It’s all right, all right,” he cried. “ They’re firing 
at ’em still, the legations haven’t given in yet. I 
hope they’re all alive behind the walls.” 

He was to learn the truth even sooner than he ex- 
pected. For the Russians instead of stopping in their 


WITHIN THE GATES 


305 


assigned camp, five miles from Pekin, as had been 
arranged in conference, and joining in the general 
attack at daylight next day, broke the agreement and 
without notifying the other allies, pushed on to the 
Eastern Gate of the capital. 

They paid dearly for their breach of faith, for 
when in the middle of the night they arrived at the 
Eastern Gate and found it practically undefended, 
they determined not to wait for the co-operation of 
the Americans who were to join with them, but 
forthwith trained their Maxims on the gate and bat- 
tered it down. The Chinese ran before them, but 
when the Russians charged for the Hatu-men Gate, 
which Ned had once slipped through in his “ baby 
basket,” the defenders had rallied in force and as 
daylight broke, the Russians fell back badly crippled, 
and the Tartar Gate remained untaken. 

The Japanese heard the news and, enraged at the 
Russian action, sent post haste to the American and 
British columns. The Americans had outstripped 
their British brothers and when Chaffee heard the 
Japanese report he acted at once, and rushed his 
men along the road until at last the walls of Pekin 
were in sight. 

There was firing everywhere. The boom of guns 
from the beleaguered legations, where all through 
the night a furious mob had shot and charged, and 
yelled and thundered in vain, came down on the wind 


3°6 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


only to be lost in the greater roar of the advance of 
the allies banging away at the eastern and southern 
walls. 

The Russian guns were thundering at the Tang- 
pien mun, or gate; the Japanese were banging away 
at the Chi-hau-mun, and having the hardest fight of 
all, for against their hereditary foemen the Chinese 
made the strongest resistance ; the Americans, coming 
to the moat, saw no gate at all, but as the defenders 
of the wall spied their approach they raked the boys 
in blue and khaki with a furious sniping fire, which 
made more noise than damage, though a few of the 
Fourteenth went down. 

It was with his friends of the Fourteenth that Ned 
Pevear came to the moat and the wall. For when 
Captain Marshall found that the marines and the 
Ninth were to be held back for a charge under cover 
of Reilly’s battery, he despatched Ned to General 
Chaffee as one acquainted with the legation grounds 
to await his orders and be of service in any way he 
might. 

Nothing loth to be well in the advance Ned raced 
along the roadway until he came up with the Four- 
teenth lining the moat and replying to the Chinese 
fire from the wall. The general, he found, had gone 
forward on a scout of his own, and Colonel Daggett 
of the Fourteenth was in a bit of a quandary. 

To him Ned reported. 


WITHIN THE GATES 


307 


“ Know the place, eh ? ” said the colonel. " Well, 
where’s the nearest gate ? That’s the one we want to 
tackle.” 

“ Quite a ways up the moat, sir,” Ned replied; 
"but there’s a nearer way in than that; only it’s 
dirty.” 

"Dirty, is it? Well,” the colonel laughed as he 
looked on his travel-worn men, " we’re not afraid of 
dirt, I guess. We haven’t any of us had our clothes 
off for ten days and it’s hard to tell which is blue and 
which is khaki. But I guess the legation people 
won’t mind if we aren’t just fit for dress parade. 
Where’s your dirty gate ? ” 

" It isn’t really a gate, sir,” Ned replied, " it’s 
pretty well up toward the legation grounds and it‘s 
the big drainage arch, the sewer opening — sluice- 
gate they call it, where the drainage comes into the 
moat. If it isn’t too dirty you could go through.” 

" Sluice-gate — drainage ? Phew ! that doesn’t 
sound real inviting; but show it to us; we can go 
through it, if we don’t have to swim.” 

Ned showed them the arch of the sluice-gate open- 
ing across the moat, and one by one two companies 
of the Fourteenth ran across the almost dry moat, 
the colonel and the regimental colors leading. 

Ned was in his element. He was scout and guide 
in the lead in the great movement he had so long 
'looked forward to, — but he did wish it was some- 


3 o8 UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 

thing better than a sewer that gave the Yankees 
entrance. 

Once through the arch the crumbling inner wall 
stopped the boys but an instant. Ned and the color 
bearer scrambled up like squirrels using as steps the 
holes made by loosened and fallen bricks. Hand 
over hand they went, each lending a hand or a 
shoulder to the others, until a dozen of the advance 
had clambered to the very top; and, just as the Rus- 
sian flag went up in triumph over the Tung-pien 
gate, the regimental colors of the fighting Fourteenth 
were planted on the wall above the sluice-gate. 

A storm of Yankee hurrahs filled the air; ropes 
were made into slings ; and guns and equipment were 
hoisted up. They were in the city at last. 

Then Ned began to fret and fume. The colonel 
could not go farther without orders while the gen- 
eral was still “ on the scout ” ; and, worse than all, 
while messengers were despatched to find him and 
secure orders, the turbaned Sikhs of the British con- 
tingent came straggling through the sluice-gate and 
passed the waiting Americans. 

Ned cheered and grumbled as the British con- 
tingent took the right of way. 

“ Those night-capped Injuns will be in before us, 
after all,” he said. “ I wonder if I can’t go with 
them? I’ll ask the colonel.” 

He did so forthwith. And when the colonel heard 


WITHIN THE GATES 


309 


that the lad had friends among the legationers and 
knew that there was no real necessity for his volun- 
teer scout to wait further orders, he gave a willing 
consent. 

“ Go on, my boy/’ he said. “ Just tell ’em we’ll 
see ’em later.” 

And with a salute Ned dashed after the British 
column. 

“ Colonel Daggett’s compliments, sir — Colonel 
Daggett of the Americans,” Ned said with his best 
salute to one of the British officers of the dusty East 
Indian advance; he begs you to permit me to go in 
with you. I am one of his volunteer aids and I have 
friends in the legation.” 

“ You’re heartily welcome, lad,” the British offi- 
cer replied. “ Who are your friends there?” 

“ Tom Dickson is one, sir,” Ned answered. “ He’s 
one of Sir Robert Hart’s customs men, and his 
father is British Consul at Valencia.” 

“ Oh, yes ; I know young Dickson,” said the offi- 
cer; “ he was with us at Tien Tsin, don’t you know. 
You’re jolly welcome here if you are a friend of his. 
Get forward to the head of the column and you’ll be 
in all the sooner.” 

Ned strode beside his new friend “ well up to 
the head ” and was speedily marching through the 
throng of enthusiastic welcomers in that “ nervous, 
happy time,” as one spectator described it, when, af- 


3io 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


ter weeks of dreadful suspense within and without 
the walls, the first of the allied relief marched into 
the grounds of the British legation. For, after all, the 
relief that the world supposed would be the rush and 
charge of bloody fighting was but a walk-in, a pa- 
rade of travel-stained and wearied soldiers through a 
well-dressed company of smiling and welcoming la- 
dies and gentlemen. 

Ned heard a hearty hail and a joyful shout of 
greeting as his eye sought for his friends. The next 
instant Tom Dickson had him about the neck and 
was shaking hands with exultant energy. 

“ Why, hello there! you jolly old Sikh!” cried 
Tom. “ What are you doing under the British flag? 
You murdering old son of a Punjabi, were you 
killed as I thought you were and have you trans- 
migrated into a turbaned Sikh? My hat! Ned; but 
I never thought to see you again, dear boy. Where 
are your people ? ” 

“ O,” said Ned, “ they’re just behind ! We made 
way for these chaps so that the English flag could go 
first into the British legation, of course. How’s 
everybody ? How’s — the yungvrouw ? ” 

“ Who ? — O, Lizbet ? she’s allright, allright, as you 
Yankees say. She ” — 

“ She’s waiting to welcome Mynheer Ned,” the 
girl broke in upon Tom Dickson’s assurances; “ and 
so glad to see you again, my friend.” 


WITHIN THE GATES 


311 

And then Ned was greeting the girl, not so athleti- 
cally, perhaps, as he had greeted Tom Dickson, but 
fervently and heartily, while tears of joy and thank- 
fulness stood in the eyes of both — and even in Tom 
Dickson’s too; for Tom did have his sentimental 
side. 

Then other friends came forward — the ministers 
who thought they had sent the American lad to his 
death, the ladies who remembered him well, the chil- 
dren, the guards, even the coolies and servants who 
were in the welcoming crowd. 

Then, there was quiet for a while, and again came 
the shouting and cheering as, with General Chaffee 
at their head, the American “ relievers ” marched 
into the British grounds — tired, dirty, hard-looking, 
but glad to know that their work was done and so 
well done, though somewhat embarrassed to find 
themselves so much more disreputable looking as to 
cleanliness and clothing than were those they sup- 
posed to be ragged, worn, even starving and at the 
point of death. 

“ What have we got into, Tom — a garden party? ” 
queried Ned. “ By George. You folks have dressed 
for the occasion, and we — why — we look like a lot 
of tramps.” 

“ Who have tramped to good advantage, my son,” 
said Sir Robert Hart, who overheard the remark. 
“ And you see the siege has taught us things. We 


312 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


couldn’t be off to the hills, don’t you know. Our 
Chinese neighbors objected. So we have found out 
that Pekin is a fine summer resort.” 

“And you know you can eat horse-steak if you 
have to; eh, yungvrouw? ” said Tom Dickson as the 
three friends walked away. 

“ Hunger is a good sauce, Mynheer,” the Dutch 
girl replied ; “ we did well, because we must, you 
see.” 

“ And you were brave because you couldn’t help 
it,” said Ned. “ I think you women and girls are 
just as much the heroes of the siege as the fighters 
on the wall; eh, Tom? ” 

“ Every time,” the English lad replied. tf You see 
they weren’t so afraid for us as we were for them. 
That gave us the shivers. It wasn’t so much the 
food, don’t you know; we could get along all right 
on that; it wasn’t the danger of a fight with those 
bloody Boxers; we were more’n a match for them. 
But the thought of the women and children, and what 
they were going through and what they might have 
to suffer if we were starved out and overpowered — 
that was what gave us the blues. But now it’s all 
right, thank God.” 

“ Thank the good God, indeed,” the young girl 
said fervently. “ It was just a horrid dream. But 
now it is over since — since Mynheer Ned and his 
brave comrades have come to us.” 


WITHIN THE GATES 


3 J 3 


“There you are, Ned; you did it all, you see,” 
cried Tom Dickson with a hearty laugh. 

Ned Pevear fairly blushed. 

“ And now, what next? ” he said, to turn the sub- 
ject. “ We’ve relieved the legations. What about 
the emperor? I had a great scheme to kidnap him, 
but Cap’n Ullman didn’t take any stock in it.” 

“ Ullman — the German? ” cried Tom; “ that’s so, 
where is he? ” I haven’t seen him yet.” 

Ned told the story of the captain’s death and the 
adventures that had led up to it. 

“ My hat ! but that’s too bad,” said Tom. “ He 
was a good fellow; and if he did make a mistake, 
by Jove! sir, he paid for it nobly.” 

And the yungvrouw Lizbet dropped a tear to the 
memory of her father’s friend. “ It was the way 
he would hope to die, I think,” she said. “ He 
fought for us well, here; and for the poor converts 
in the Wu. 

“ Well, I suppose the next thing is to clear out the 
Imperial city and just provost the town,” said 
Ned. 

“ You won’t need to kidnap the emperor, Ned,” 
Tom assured him. “ He and his dear relative, the 
empress, gave us the go-by a week ago. They’re 
creaking off north somewhere in carts, hunting for 
shelter, by now.” 

“ And Prince Tuan? ” queried Ned; but Tom did 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


3 T 4 

not answer, for just at that moment he linked arms 
with an old friend, Wong Lee, the Omaha mer- 
chant. 

“ Always turning up at the right moment, aren’t 
you, Mr. Wong?” cried Ned. “ What say you 
now ? ” 

“ What said I ever, O, brother? ” the Omaha mer- 
chant replied. “ To help you to the relief of your 
people here in Pekin, that is good ; that I would help 
you bring about. But now where is poor China? 
At the mercy of those who would covet, loot and 
carve her.” 

“ I hope not,” said Ned. “ We are not here for 
plunder; we are here for relief and punishment. 
Hang the guilty ones, I say, and then good-bye and 
good riddance. What’s the use of rubbing it in? ” 

The courteous Chinaman gave the Asiatic motion 
of dissent. 

“ Ah, but the others of your allies, they are not like 
you,” he said. “To them it is a joy to, as you say, 
rub it in. These men of India, of Annam, of the 
Cossack steppes — think you they will be satisfied to 
go away empty-handed? You shall see — you shall 
see. 

That was just what Captain Marshall had said; 
and Ned did see, very soon. For, when the final 
attack had scattered the last of the Chinese defenders 
entrenched in the Forbidden City; when the brave 


WITHIN THE GATES 


3i5 


Reilly, whose famous battery had been planted on 
the wall above the Chen-man gate had fallen dead 
in the arms of Major Waller, the allies’ crowning 
sacrifice to relief and triumph ; when the Americans 
had battered down the gate into the Forbidden City, 
and Russians and Japanese, Frenchmen and Ger- 
mans, Italians and Austrians, British and Americans, 
in “ Sunday clothes,” with blaring bands and stream- 
ing banners had marched through the gates of the 
Forbidden City — until that day of triumph a “ ta- 
booed ” place to all “ foreign devils,” high and low; 
when the halls of the Imperial palace, the groves and 
grottoes of China’s “holy of holies” had been in- 
vaded by the ranks of the allied nations who had 
humbled China’s pride and cowed the haughty Man- 
chus — then began the carnival of loot and greed 
which seemed so inconsistent with Christian civili- 
zation and Christian methods. 

Ned Pevear had no desire for this sort of thing. 
A little jade ornament, a plate or a Chinese mat, 
taken simply as mementoes of a great event in his- 
tory and a crowning achievement in arms — these he 
might covet and even take away ; but “ stealing as a 
science”' — that he could not and would not sub- 
scribe to. 

“Where’s the harm, Ned?” Tom Dickson said. 
“ If we don’t get our share of these things, the Chi- 
nese mob will, when once we give ’em a chance; and 


3 l6 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


‘ to the victors belong the spoils,’ you know. That’s 
good American doctrine, isn’t it? ” 

“ Not in this way,” Ned replied. “ Besides, Gen- 
eral Chaffee won’t allow it. The American soldier, 
he says, has the sense of the right of property drilled 
into his very bones, and he must live up to it. I 
heard the general pitch into one of our boys in great 
shape, just because he saw him going into a silk 
warehouse which the Sikhs and Cossacks were loot- 
ing.” 

“ Yes, and when that soldier dropped his find, I’ll 
wager you a dozen Chinamen gathered it all in and 
laughed at the American for throwing away what he 
had once got his hands on.” 

“ I don’t care, right is right,” said Ned; “ and I 
think the general’s right every time.” 

Ned had marched beside the Marines into the 
Imperial city and through the palace grounds in all 
the glory of the final triumph ; he had worked hard, 
fighting the filth and confusion of the quarter as- 
signed to the guardianship of the American troops, 
and he had spent much of his leisure among such of 
his friends in the legation grounds as had not left in 
the foreign exodus that followed the capture of 
Pekin. 

Mynheer Verbockhoven and his daughter the 
yungvrouw Lizbet, had been of those who remained. 
The good Dutchman’s interests in the city were too 


WITHIN THE GATES 


3 T 7 


great to desert, and as one who had lived through 
many experiences of uprising and lawlessness in his 
Asiatic homes, he took all things philosophically, 
looking out for number one and making profit out of 
the things that came his way. 

“We cannot reform the world in a day, my 
friend/’ he said to Ned Pevear. “ That is the Amer- 
ican desire, perhaps, but it is too hasty for the best 
results. Your brother allies and their colonial sol- 
diers have not the fine sense of property rights that 
some of you restless Americans have. We must 
take things as we find them and leave it to time to 
change wrong into right. Hence, if any man has 
taken from the city of a conquered foeman what he 
thinks is the victor’s spoil, and has no use for it ex- 
cept to turn it into money — why I am here with 
funds. I will buy it to save it.” 

“ As, I, too, have done,” the Omaha merchant de- 
clared. “ I have despatched three junk loads thus 
purchased to my house at Tien-Tsin, and much profit 
shall I make in the American market. Who knows ? 
This may open the door to a new life for my people. 
The breeze of civilization, even on the wings of loot, 
may blow into my China and remake it — if the allies 
leave anything to remake.” 

This was more than Ned would subscribe to, but 
he, too, grew less combative of the methods of those 
not of his way of looking at things and partially ac- 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


318 

cepted his Dutch friend’s declaration that the world 
could not be reformed in a day. 

But he did not yield to the temptation that led 
many good men from the straight way. So while 
Tom Dickson was deep in his many duties under 
the eye of Sir Robert Hart, Ned, although he, too, 
found much to do to help in keeping peace and order 
in the American section, passed much of his spare 
time in the pleasant quarters of his friends, the 
Verbockhovens, and became so frequent a visitor 
there as to call forth from his English comrade much 
good-natured chaffing and teasing. 

But Ned did not care. 

“ It shows my good taste, old chap/’ he said to 
Tom, “ the yungvrouw, Lizbet, is much more inter- 
esting than silk warehouses and dirty old palaces, 
and she is much better company that Sikhs or 
Annamites and looting soldiers.” 

But at last came the day when Captain Marshall 
was ordered back to Taku, and Ned, he said, must 
go with him. 

“ You’ve been here too long, my boy,” he said. 
“ Home is the best place for you. What does your 
father say ? ” 

“ He says so, too,” Ned replied. “ My last letters 
from him announce that if my time’s up and you can 
spare me there are plenty of home duties calling me. 
He says college is ahead of me, and, next to 


WITHIN THE GATES 319 

relieving the suffering, comes finishing my educa- 
tion” 

“ Well,” laughed the captain, “ relieving the suf- 
fering under the allied flags came mighty near to 
finishing you more than once. I think you’d better 
get back to America and try the effect of a little 
healthy quiet on your strenuous nature. You’re in 
my care, you know, and I’m going to ship you home 
as soon as I can — much as I hate to have you go. 
You’ve been as good as a play to me, Ned, with a 
climax at the end of every act.” 

“ My hat ! old chap, but I’m mighty sorry to say 
good-bye,” said Tom Dickson, as the day for leave- 
taking arrived. “ Hanged if I don’t think you could 
get more schooling in the university of the world, as 
my pater calls life, than in any American college. 
But I ’spose your people know best. Anyhow, I 
know one thing, you’re just as good a chap to tie to 
as Don Martin was, and some day I hope we three 
fellows can meet. By Jove ! when I go back home 
next year, as I hope to, on leave, I’m going by the 
way of the States and just hunt you two chaps up 
and bring you together. And won’t we have a pic- 
nic? Well, we will, just.” 

“ Good-bye, Herr Ned,” the yungvrouw said, as 
the hands of the two young people lingered just a 
bit longer than was necessary in a last adieu. “ May 
it be auf wiedersehen with us, as the Germans say, 


3 2 ° 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


rather than farewell. I shall never forget your 
bravery in helping us here, and the risks you ran in 
trying to bring about our relief. But I think that 
your going back with that message to the 4 Prince 
Ching and others,’ though it was going almost surely 
into the face of death, was the bravest of all ; for that 
was a matter of honor, and, do you know, I believe 
that to keep your word and do your duty are about 
the bravest things a man can do — and you are almost 
a man, Herr Ned.” 

“ I hope I won’t be before I see you again, 
yungvrouw,” replied Ned, just a bit sheepishly. “ But 
I shall always say that you women and girls were 
the real heroes — or heroines — of the siege. It is easy 
enough to fight — when you have something to fight 
for ; but it’s bravest of all to work and be patient as 
you were when you did not know what might happen. 
Do you know what is my choicest of all the souvenirs 
I’m taking home with me? No? It’s one of those 
silk sand bags you made for me to take to the wall. 
I found it the other day when we were clearing away 
the barricades. I knew it, because you worked your 
initials on it for me, you know, and I’m going to 
give it a place of honor, as a trophy of calmness in 
peril and of real courage in a time of distress.” 

“ Good-bye, brother,” said Wong Lee, the China- 
man. “ But it is not good-bye, I hope. For when I 
can do so, within this next year, I am going to 


WITHIN THE GATES 


321 


Omaha to look after my American business, and it is 
you I shall find and see, companion of my adven- 
tures, heedless but honorable one, unquiet but true. 
How things shall be ended here, who shall say ? The 
nations of the earth will quarrel over downfallen 
China ; a world war may grow from it, for men will 
not willingly give up what once they have possessed 
themselves of, and, save perhaps the Americans, all 
the allied nations will keep a firm grip on my native 
land, fearful to let go, lest the others get more than 
they should. But the American I trust and honor; 
and proud I am to know that I too am of that noble 
land, if not by birth then by residence, perhaps by 
adoption. May I not say by adoption, my son ? ” 

“ Sure ! ” replied Ned, grasping the proffered 
hand of the Chinaman with hearty enthusiasm. “ I 
owe my life to you, over and over again, and he who 
has done me such service is my brother, every time.” 

So at last the good-byes were all said and Ned 
Pevear, riding down the streets where he had known 
peril and hair-breadth escape — not now smuggled in 
a bale on a camel’s back nor cramped in a humiliating 
“ baby basket,” but with the escort of Marines and 
under the folds of the flag — took the eastward way 
by Tien-Tsin and Taku over the Pacific to the wel- 
come and the security of home. 

The problem of China, the rivalries of nations, the 
question of imperialism and the future of his own 


322 


UNDER THE ALLIED FLAGS 


homeland as a world power troubled him but little. 
An enthusiastic believer in the strength and glory ^ 
the republic of which he sought to be a worthy son, 
he was after all but a boy, in spite of all his ex- 
periences and of all his adventures. He believed he 
had done his duty in helping to relieve the be- 
leaguered legations within the gates of Pekin; but 
duty really had been but the cloak for desire; and the 
excitement and fun of the campaign outweighed 
with him even the stern reasons that had taken him 
into the muddy Pei-ho and the danger he had seen 
in the troubled land of the Flowery Kingdom. 

So he went back, once more, to the quiet of home 
and the less exciting duties of school and college. 

“But if ever the chance comes again/’ he de- 
clared to his father as the two exchanged experiences 
and “ swapped ” stories, “ I tell you, sir, you can 
count me in. It stirs a fellow’s blood to go through 
such things, and it’s worth a lot of risk and a lot of 
danger to make such good friends as Tom Dickson, 
and poor Captain Ullman, and Wong Lee, the 
Omaha merchant — and — the yungvrouw Lizbet 
Verbockhoven.” 

Whereupon his father smiled. For he, too, had, 
in his young days, run many risks, loved adventures, 
and — made and kept friendships. 

END 

t *788 

































s 






















































1 


*b $ : 

& 'U * 



V 



V k 

o o' 

^ * 

* ' ^ _ _ *>. * .0 




. A* r 

%/ : 


J * l/ <r^ v ^ ■ s^m$#P s v 

'*/°* X V C° N ^,\' M ''/v*' 


^ ^ © \ V o 

„ .<*> ^ \ - 


.❖■ 




^ r* 



^ O \° ^. >* 

■^f. /- ’^Wv\ir r ‘ > + 

*&■ '* , K o ’” C °, ^ * 

,, "■> “ .9* *'*"'„V 

t - A* ^ »<?«?>„ % 

^ t> S • 


J * * s V v l 



•^* V 

O 0 X 


* ^ °* x 4 *\ \o* c * ^ 

* ^ * 

- zmff^ " A v ° 

* . U ^ • ,0 o 



y £. » y- ^^*'‘ 

' » .0 N 0 ’ £ 0 ' °*±* * * 1 ' 
> S S * * ' * > , 9 ^ V * n ^ 



* 't ^ S <0 

* £ <1 ^ % .Id 

o°**‘ * 


■x_ p.\ *' 

o 0 *> 


r> r y ,V ^ 9 * CP 

* D N 0 

V 


A- 


$ 


q 5 


‘V 0 

S 




r <S 


^ Oo x. 



to 


* <v 


* aV </> ~ o c> <<. o' 

S . o » o , ss ** ''V \" 1 1 * «,s ' '°' y V' x 

' /■^pv', °.„ c 0 Sjti * S. ,s *■* 




^ V * 


° V 

> V ^\NSS^ > * 

*-* v ^'*S/ % 

^ f . ft 5 S . % 

O 



* *Kc 4 

" C$ o '?•// -'^j^sX V^ J J* ,v\^ > 

-fc W> v ^ . 'A^ * «>* * ^ 

S A 1 " 4 . S A x c° * c « ^o , * 

0 *w%,\ % s .’^sw^ ° . 

S »’ ^ i 

i* .o '- 1 c b * s ' 

•t'' 1 ’ V V s'*% 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



□□□212D7330 


